


The Sound of Freedom

by Yojimbra



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventure, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Slice of Life, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-06 11:05:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yojimbra/pseuds/Yojimbra
Summary: Tayuya's freedom rests on her ability to play the flute and keep the Kyuubi calm. If only the blond idiot that was its jailor wasn't such an idiot things would go so much smoother. Naruto x Tayuya, Fluffy, Rated M for Tayuya.





	1. Chapter 1

How long had she been rotting in the Konoha prison? 

Once again Tayuya found herself trying to play a flute that wasn’t there. She missed her flute more than she missed the sun. More than she missed talking to people. She didn’t even want it for her genjutsu. She just wanted to play it. 

At first she was flattered that they saw fit to put her in maximum security, as if Orochimaru would come try break her out someday. But now that he had Sasuke she was probably the furthest thing from his mind. Still, she supposed helping kill the Hokage was a pretty good reason to lock her up and throw away the key. 

At Least she wasn’t dead....yet. 

Ninja prisons sucked. The food was in pill form. There were no windows, no courtyard, and depending on how you behaved you had the choice between crucifixion or a room small enough to always feel claustrophobic.

Tayuya had such a room due to good behaviour. The cell came with the dullest stone walls they could find. It even had the toilet right next to the bed, really convenient. Most of the idiots in here had tried to escape at one point or another. Tayuya hadn’t bothered. 

It was hard to run away in a wheelchair. 

The mechanisms in the door began to turn. There were several loud clanks and a whirl before the door open. 

Tayuya spun her chair to look at her guest. She kind of recognized him, it was hard not to remember the faces of the last ten people she saw. It was the Konoha nin that had first encountered her and the sound four when they were leaving with Sasuke. How long ago was that?

“Sup cock sucker?” Or at least that’s what she wanted to say but it came out as a hard cough. It had been a while since she had spoken. Her vocal cords needed to adjust. She had a lot of swearing bottled up. 

Genma stepped into the room. Two Anbu joined him on either side. “Tayuya of The Sound four.” He said in a calm and almost pitiful tone. 

“Finally decided to kill me off eh?” She managed to choke out. “About fucking time, I’ve counted the number of bumps in the wall at least twenty times. There’s even a picture of your mom getting-” 

“Your presence has been requested in Konoha.” Genma said flatly. He stepped into the cell and moved behind her.

“What for?” Tayuya asked. She felt her wheelchair being put into motion and she felt a sense of excitement well up inside. She was desperate to see the sun again, to be able to breath fresh air. The sun had been in her dreams for so long. “I already told you guys everything.” 

She could hear the bastard swashing that stupid senbon around in his mouth. If she remember correctly he could spit those out with deadly force. It was probably aimed at her head. “You’re going to be tested.” 

That got Tayuya’s interest. “On what? How to count? Cause I got real fucking good at that in that cell.” 

Her motor mouth would have continued to go on and on but they passed the threshold of her cell and all sound vanished. Another reason she hated this place. Any voice beyond the walls of the cell became mute. Her cell door clanged shut. And was locked. Tight. 

Tayuya wanted to say good riddance to it. To never return to that place again was a dream come true. They’d have to kill her before she went back into that box again. The outside of her cell was something Tayuya had only seen once. And from what she remembered, it was different on the way in. 

The first time she was rolled through hallway after hallway, endless twists and turns just to reach her cell. This time they only went as far as the end of the hall where a narrow elevator waited for them. The elevator was caged with barely enough room for her wheelchair, let alone her guards. The ceiling was low as well. A tall man would have had to squat to enter. It dangled over a reflective black liquid that mirrored everything.

Genma rolled her into the cage. She found a trace of panic blossom in her mind. Another box, she told herself. Just one more box and then she would be out of here. The cage door slammed behind her. 

The elevator shook and began to move. Down. Towards the liquid..She turned to look at the leaf shinobi behind her. To see if they were confused that it was going down. Up was freedom right? 

They were gone.

The bastards were going to drown her. 

She wanted to kick herself for believing that they were going to set her free. That they weren’t just going to sweep what she did under the carpet. 

Konoha was filled with cruel bastards. To raise her hopes like that and then kill her in the worse way possible. Tayuya couldn’t swim. She hated water. Drowning, was her worst fear. 

Tears streamed down her eyes. She began to shake against her wheelchair desperate to escape. The cage was solid and her efforts were in vain. Liquid streamed in around her feet and began to rise. It was then that she became aware of another fear. One she didn’t even know she had. Claustrophobia. 

Her space grew smaller and smaller as the black liquid rose higher in the cage. There was less room to breath. There was less room to move. She tried to stand to get closer to the surface. To try squeeze out. 

It was too late. 

She was trapped.

Drowning.

Dying.

Birds chirping.

What?

A fucking bird was chirping. Here she was drowning and a bird had the audacity to chirp. 

And then there was the smell. Why the fuck did this water smell like dirt? And why didn’t it feel like water. It almost felt like the wind was blowing across her face. She opened her eyes.

Why was it so bright? 

Tayuya’s eyes slammed shut again. She had to squint and slowly open her eyes. Was the sun always so bright? Did dirt always smell so dirty? Were birds always so fucking annoying? 

More importantly wasn’t she drowning just a minute ago?

And why was she so hungry? 

“Nice to have you join us.” said Genma. She could hear the amusement in the smug bastards voice. He was still pushing her wheelchair. “About time too, you’ll be able to see Konoha in just a minute.” 

Tayuya strained her eyes she saw specs of green. Hints of blue. Actual color! The world was more than just dull brown stone. The only other color she had grown used to seeing in her cell was the red in her hair. She’d come to love it. It was such a vibrant color. Beat the snot out of shit stain brown. “The fuck was that?” 

“Oh it’s a genjutsu so that you won’t see the exit.” She could hear that stupid senbon in his mouth sloshing around. If she was lucky he’d choke on the fucking thing. “It’s different for everybody it seems. What was yours?”

Tayuya wanted to glare at him. But everything was still too bright for her to glare at her for long.. “You guys fucking drowned me.” She didn’t want to let them know that that was one of her deepest fears. 

“That explains the crying.” 

Tayuya didn’t give a shit if she would be staring into a thousand suns she shot her eyes open and glared at the son of a bitch. Her gaze said a lot. But her mouth said more. “I will piss on your grave do you hear me you fucking bastard?” 

Bastard had the audacity to chuckle at her. Like she was some cute little kitten throwing a hissy fit. “You know, being rude to me is not going to help you stay out of there.” 

That shut her up. 

“Ahh the sound of swallowed pride.” 

Tayuya bit her tongue. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the hard armrests of her wheelchair. “So why am I out anyways?” 

Genma took on a serious tone. “We need a flute player.” 

 

  
XXXX 

Tayuya sat in the wheelchair she’d spent almost three years in. It was a good thing she couldn’t feel her ass because it would probably be sore right now. She sat in front of the person that had sentenced her to that small horrible box. 

She didn’t hate the woman for it. It was a lot better than just killing her off. 

“Alright brat.” Tsunade said in a harsh whip of a voice. “Let’s get right down to business. We need to see if you can play a certain flute. And the only reason we’ve turned to you, a criminal in maximum security, is because nobody else can. We need a master flute player. Apparently that’s you.” 

Tayuya felt herself blush. She had never considered herself a master, but then again she had never heard of anybody else that could summon a genjutsu with just sound. Even Orochimaru couldn’t figure out how she did it. 

“I might be a bit rusty.” 

Tsunade snorted and pulled out a box that was covered in seals. An orange spiral was on top. “This.” Tsunade presented a pure white flute with hundreds of seals on it. “Is my grandmother’s flute.” 

Tayuya licked her lips. She felt the need to play it. It didn’t matter what for. She just had to touch it, feel it in her hands. It was like an itch that she hadn’t been able to reach in years was about to get scratched. She would agree to anything if they would just let her play that flute. 

She reached for it, but Tsunade pulled it away. “Let me set some ground rules before you we begin.” Tayuya wanted to protest. She wanted to shout that she would agree to anything if they’d just give her five good minutes with the thing. “First, if you can’t activate the flute, You go back into the hole.”

Tayuya froze at that. And a small flicker of hope blossomed in her chest. Her freedom rested on her ability to play a flute. There was no way she could

“Second, should you activate the flute, you will be given a mission, and be placed under house arrest here in Konoha. You will be monitored, and you will not be allowed to leave without my permission.” 

Tayuya licked her lips once again they seemed to become drier each second. She would do it. She would make this flute her bitch and make it sing. 

“Third, should the mission be a success, I will restore your legs.” 

Tayuya felt her heart skip a beat. 

Her legs. 

She had thought that she’d always be bound to a chair. Never able to run again. Never able to kick ass again. 

“I agree.” The words came out louder and faster than she’d thought. 

Tsunade looked surprised for a moment before she composed herself. “You never had a choice.”

Tsunade presented the flute to her. 

Tayuya took the flute gently. It tingled in her hands. It felt different. Not quite metal, not quite wood, and too light to be stone. Despite the differences she knew exactly where her fingers went. Exactly where her mouth went. For a long moment everything in the world seemed like it was made out of daisies. 

She didn’t waste a second.

Her eyes fluttered shut and her soul poured out for the first time in over three years. She didn’t play from a sheet. She didn’t play her genjutsu she played from her heart and soul. And the music came flooding out. 

A melody as swift and as frantic as a bee echoed throughout the room for a second, before it shifted into that of a lumbering bear, then again into a cacophony of toads, a duet of fluttering birds, a mighty beast roaring. Tayuya and the flute became one as her fingers blurred along it. 

In a flourish that sounded like a spring day just after it rained Tayuya finally took the flute down from her mouth. 

She looked at the Hokage. The woman had a nostalgic smile on her face. 

She looked at Genma who applauded softly. 

She looked at the flute and the seals glowed a soft green. 

Tayuya smiled. She wasn’t going to go back in the box. And she was going to get her legs back. She was going to run. She was going to work out. She was going to do squats until she had the best ass and legs in all of Konoha. 

“So what’s the mission?” she asked.

Tsunade coughed for a moment smile turned back into the hard expression she had when Tayuya first entered the room. “Do you know who Naruto Uzumaki is?” 

Tayuya’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember. Wasn’t one of the brats that beat them called Naruto? Might be the stupid looking blond kid. “Short, blond, kind of stupid?” 

Tsunade laughed. “Well he’s not short anymore but yea.” Her amusement died down quickly. “That flute was used by Mito Uzumaki to calm the nine tailed fox in the past.” 

Tayuya’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me it’s inside of that brat?” 

Tsunade nodded. “Correct and he’s currently doing intense training, training that might put a strain on his seal. Your mission is to use that flute if the Kyuubi starts acting up.” 

Tayuya looked at the flute in marvel for a long moment. This was used to calm the nine tailed fox. This put it in the same league as the First Hokage and the Sharingan. And she got to play it. 

“When do I start?” There was a giddiness in her voice that she couldn’t contain. 

Tsunade smirked. She was starting to like this girl. “Yamato, Kakashi asked for you today correct?”

Tayuya turned to where Tsunade was looking to see one of the jonin in the room step forward. He was tall with a flat face and wore head gear. She immediately labeled him as a massive nerd. 

Yamato stepped forward, a sheepish smile on his face. “I’m actually late to meet him.” 

“Fine take Tayuya and get to work, Naruto should be able to use a lot more of its chakra with that flute around.” Yamamoto Nodded and Tayuya found herself being pushed out the door. “And if she tries anything funny, kill her.”

Tayuya couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Oh yeah because I’m totally going to be able to roll away from the village.” 

Sarcasm just came naturally to her. 

XXXX

Tayuya’s voice came back in full force. “I’m not a fucking sack of potatoes you god vanilla faced cock sucker!” Her reason for shouting was simple. This Yamato bastard had decided that they were going to be late and had tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “As soon as I get my fucking legs back the first thing I’m going to do is shove my foot so far up your ass, I’ll be playing footsies with your lovers ballsack!” 

“It’s faster this way.” Yamato said once again. He braced himself for her continued outburst of insults but they never came. For a long moment there was silence. 

“Why are you all being so casual about this?” Tayuya asked eventually. It had bothered her by how quickly the Hokage had given her a flute. A regular one was dangerous in her hands and this flute was powerful in its own right. She could feel it. 

“You’re not the only one that was experimented on by Orochimaru.” Yamato informed her. He kept his eyes straight ahead lest he give the girl a reason to think he was a pervert. “Konoha is a village of second chances.” 

Tayuya touched her curse seal lightly. They had sealed it of course. It’s draw was more a leaking faucet than the raging tsunami it had been before. She was used to it now, barely even noticed it, her periods were worse by far. 

“Still I helped kill the Third Hokage, and now you’re giving me a tool that can tame the Kyuubi. Doesn’t seem very smart.” 

Yamato laughed. “The fact that you’re concerned about it is good. We’re not trusting you blindly. But right now just focus on the mission.” 

Tayuya couldn’t deny that logic. If she completed the mission she would get her legs back. And even if she was stuck in Konoha for the rest of her life, it wasn’t a fucking box. And there were more people to talk to! It didn’t matter if most of them were fucking idiots. It beat talking to a wall. 

And if the people of Konoha sucked too much she could just become a crazy cat lady. 

Her musing on her life with legs was interrupted when she was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. “Oh what the fuck!” Tayuya wailed. “I know I’m already fucking broken but you don’t need to give me the whole rough prison bitch technique.” Her wheelchair was set up next to her. 

She was going to burn that fucking thing when she got her legs back. 

Yamato smiled down at her. She was going to burn him to… That would put her back in a box though. He looked stupid, he’d probably die quickly. She’d piss on his grave. “That’s for calling me a cock sucker.” 

“Talk about holding a grudge.” Tayuya moaned as she pulled herself up into her wheelchair. Once was was sitted properly she looked out onto the large clearing. There was Kakashi one of the leaf’s most powerful shinobi. And then there was the shithead. 

He certainly grew up. 

“Oh, Captain Yamato what are you doing here?” Naruto asked halfway to confusion. Already he was about to ask another question but then he saw Tayuya sitting in her chair. “And who is she?” 

Tayuya smiled. “Long time no see shithead.” 

“My name’s Naruto.” Naruto pouted. This girl seemed familiar but he couldn’t place his finger on where he’d seen her. She seemed to know him. 

Kakashi sighed he was so close to getting Naruto to start his training. Now it was going to be an endless stream of tangents, likely starting with Naruto accusing the girl of being why Sasuke left the village, followed by a tangent of what chakra nature Yamato had. The last tangent was fine as Kakashi actually had need of some earth and water jutsu in the near future. 

It was good that Tayuya was here with the flute. Kakashi had requested to use the flute to make Naruto’s training go smoothly. It rejected nearly everybody that touched it. The requirements were rather complicated, a shinobi who played the flute. Most shinobi didn’t choose music as their hobby. It was a stroke of luck that Shikamaru remembered the Sound ninja he captured years ago. 

“Naruto, this is Tayuya.” Kakashi introduced the girl who had a smile he didn’t quite trust on her face. “She’s a prisoner who will be doing a mission for the leaf to earn some of her freedom back.” 

Naruto furrowed his brow and looked at Tayuya in frustration. “What’d she do?” 

“It doesn’t matter.” Kakashi attempted to wave the whole thing off. 

Unfortunately Tayuya had a stubborn streak a mile long, combined with a complete lack of subtlety that even Naruto couldn’t miss. Well maybe. And a directness that could cause blunt force trauma to people’s emotions. 

“I created the barrier for Orochimaru and the Third Hokage to fight. Oh, and I was sent to retrieve that Uchiha punk.” Tayuya paused reflecting for a moment. “I think that’s all” 

“What!” Naruto exploded at Kakashi. “What’s she doing here then? She helped kill the old man and take Sasuke away! How can she be of any help?” Naruto finished with a dark glare at Tayuya. 

“And I got locked into a box for three years. Oh and in case you didn’t notice I kind of can’t fucking walk!” Tayuya shouted, she returned Naruto’s glare with one of her own. 

Kakashi decided to intervene. “Now now, Naruto Tayuya is here because she’s the only one that can play that flute… or at least the only one we had access to.” Kakashi pointed to the bone white flute that Tayuya clutched like it was her lifeline. 

“Why’s the flute important?” Naruto’s anger twisted into frustration once again. 

Kakashi sighed. It was getting troublesome to explain Naruto’s every question. And he still probably had to explain what chakra natures were. Why couldn’t his student be more academic? Maybe he should have had Sakura here to explain all this. She seemed to know how to do it. 

“The flute was used by the first Hokage’s wife to calm the kyuubi, the training we’re going to do today is going to use a lot of your chakra so you’ll probably end up accessing it. Tayuya is here to help keep the Kyuubi calm should that happen.” 

That got Naruto’s attention. He completely forgot Tayuya for a moment. “What kind of training are we going to do Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto beamed at his teacher. 

Kakashi smiled it seemed like things were finally back on track. “It’s simple Naruto. You’re going to use shadow clones.” 

“How are my shadow clones going to help with training?” 

Kakashi sighed. So much for getting back on track. 

“Are you really that stupid?” Tayuya asked Naruto. She didn’t wait for an answer. “I saw you use shadow clones before, that was like what three years ago? Heck I figured it out the first time I used it.” 

Naruto pouted and glared at the girl. He wasn’t stupid he just didn’t know things. “What are you guys talking about? What’s so special about the shadow clone jutsu?” 

Tayuya groaned nearly slumping in her chair. Was this kid really so thick headed he didn’t even notice it? “You know what your clones know.” She said it nice and slow so that he would understand. 

“Huh?” Naruto asked confused. He didn’t get what they were trying to tell him. 

Exasperated Tayuya threw her arms up. “Guh, Why am I the one explaining it in the first place. You’re his teacher aren’t you? This is your fault.” 

Kakashi sighed. She did have a point. “Naruto learns more by doing, than by lectures.” Kakashi tried to explain. Mostly to himself. “How do you know the shadow clone jutsu though?” He looked at the feisty red headed. Her and Naruto were still locked in a contest of glares. 

Tayuya looked at Kakashi like he was a dumbass too. “Orochimaru is a missing nin from what village?” 

Kakashi could only hum in agreement. It made sense that Orochimaru would give the jutsu to those he considered his elite bodyguards. “Well then, I want both of you to make a shadow clone.” 

Naruto complied instantly and made a single clone appear with no effort. 

Tayuya crossed her arms and glared at the man before realization came to her that she was on a mission. If she wanted her legs back she better listen to this one eyed asshole. “Guh fine, I’m out of practice though.” she mumbled.

It took her a moment to gather her chakra. It was like stretching a muscle that she hadn’t used in a long time. It didn’t come to her as naturally as playing her flute did. That was programed into her, she could already feel her chakra wanting to leap towards the flute. After a few seconds a Shadow clone of Tayuya appeared wheelchair and all. 

“Now what?” The clone asked clearly not happy about having been created. 

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. “Alright, now the clones will go into the forest where we can’t see them and do something.” 

“What do you want us to do Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto asked still confused by what was going on. 

Kakashi sighed. Hopefully Naruto wouldn’t get distracted by Yamato’s elemental affinities. “I don’t know, Tayuya, you come up with something.” There was only so much he could do.

“Why does she get to come up with something.” Naruto pouted as his clone started to walk into the forest. 

“Hey dickwad.” Tayuya’s clone shouted at the Naruto clone. She was currently failing to get any real movement done with her wheelchair. It wasn’t quite made for open fields and nature in general. “Fucking push me.” 

The Naruto clone groaned and turned around. With an exaggerated motion he pushed Tayuya out into the forest. Both Tayuya’s looked quite happy at the turn of events. It took a bit before the clones were out of site.

“Don’t say a damn thing, just wait.” Tayuya knew exactly what her clone was going to do. She couldn’t wait to see his reaction. It was going to be so much fun. She didn’t want to ruin the mood. 

It took a moment. And then Naruto’s eyes widened. He looked at Tayuya and blushed. He looked at her chest and blushed even harder. “I… You… They… Me… Clones?”

Tayuya got her memories back a second later. Both reactions were priceless. She couldn’t believe it. She started a violently laugh that nearly had her coughing. 

“What did she do to your clone?” Kakashi asked confused. 

Naruto’s face only grew redder. “Nothing, she didn’t show me anything! Can we just start this training?” He’d likely never forgot what Tayuya had shown him. Their image was burned into his mind. 

Tayuya continued to laugh, it was a mad cackle that had her holding her sides. “Oh my god shithead.” She breathed out between gasps. “The look on your face!” Tayuya’s laugh slowly died down but she kept a smile on her face. “Thanks for that I haven’t laughed like that in a long time.” 

“What ever.” Naruto crossed his arms and pouted. His face still flushed. “It wasn’t that funny.” His blush grew darker when he saw Tayuya’s smile. It was such a genuine happy smile and made her several times more attractive. She may be a ragged, pale, dirty, prisoner but there was just something about that smile. 

Kakashi coughed. He could guess what had happened. He would have guessed that a loud brash girl like Tayuya would have been a bit more of a prude. Apparently not. “Anyways, Naruto in order to train your wind chakra I want you to cut this leaf with your chakra, you’ll be using shadow clones to help you.” 

Naruto looked curiously at the leaf, glad to be looking at something besides Tayuya. “Okay how many should I make?” 

With a slow drawn out motion Kakashi pointed to a tree in the middle of the field. “About as many as there are leaves in that tree.” 

Tayuya looked back and forth between Kakashi and his idiot student in shock. “What? There’s no way this idiot could make that many clones!” She herself could only make like twenty, and then she was utterly exhausted. But the idea that this brat could make one for each leaf on that tree was insane. 

Naruto smiled at Tayuya, just as much when people believed in him, being told he couldn’t do something only stoked his fires more. “You’re going to eat those words!” Naruto shouted as he gathered up a gigantic amount of chakra. 

Tayuya ate those words when a gigantic army of shadow clones appeared. The tree was left completely bald and only a few clones didn’t have a leaf. “How the hell does he have so much chakra?”

“Naruto has about four times as much chakra as I do.” Kakashi stood by Tayuya, he wanted to start reading his book, but felt like overseeing Naruto’s training was more important at the moment. It was still a miracle that Naruto hadn’t gotten distracted by Yamato’s chakra natures. “However with the Kyuubi’s chakra it’s over one hundred times, which is why you’re here.” 

Tayuya clutched the flute tightly. “Should I start playing now?” 

“It couldn’t hurt.” Even Kakashi had to admit he was curious what the flute that could calm the kyuubi, and it would make Yamato’s job of keeping the Kyuubi’s influence on Naruto to a minimum easier.

Tayuya didn’t need to be told twice. She brought her lips to the flute. Her fingers danced along the holes. The first time she had rushed into it. Eager on so many levels. This time she was going to take it slow and simply enjoy the process of playing. 

A calmness rushed over the field like a cool summer breeze. All of the grunting from Naruto trying to cut the leaf was drowned in an ocean of melodies. With long drawn out tones Tayuya played. Every note change echoed throughout the field like the change of a season. 

Naruto felt something stir within him as he heard Tayuya play the flute. His chakra and the Kyuubi’s chakra felt calmer. It made it easier to feel his chakra without having to worry about the Kyuubi. But more than the chakra, Naruto himself felt calmer. He could focus more on the leaf. Or focus more on Tayuya. 

Every so often he would find himself looking over towards her. The way the wind blew her long red hair. The way she seemed to twist when she entered a new stride in her marathon. He could almost see her dancing as she played. Like she didn’t play with just her hands but with her entire body and soul. 

Tayuya played for nearly an hour before she had to rest. She took a long deep breath and then another. It just felt so good to be able to play like that. But the flute given to her drained her charka. She looked towards Kakashi and Yamato. “Are my wardens going to let me take a break?” 

Yamato let out a small chuckle at that. “Sure, I think you actually put the Kyuubi completely to sleep.” Yamato focused on the First Hokage’s necklace for a long moment. His wood release jutsu made him sensitive to the Kyuubi’s chakra. Compared to when Naruto went four tails against Orochimaru he didn’t even have to put any effort to contain the beast when the flute was played. 

“Hey Kakashi-sensei!” A Naruto ran up to the jounin, he didn’t want to interrupt Tayuya’s playing earlier but now that she had stopped he had the chance. “Do you have any tips for molding wind chakra?” 

Kakashi sighed. He had hoped Naruto would by some miracle have lightning or perhaps water. He could easily give him tips for those chakra manipulations. “I’m sorry Naruto but I don’t have wind as a nature, I don’t really know how to go about it.” 

“Do you know anybody that does Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto asked he then turned to Yamato. “Wait what are Captain Yamato’s natures?” 

Kakashi sighed he had hoped to avoid this explanation. “Just tell him Yamato, If we dispel this clone all the rest will get curious and we’ll have to explain anyways.” 

Yamato examined the crystal for a moment. Everything about the Kyuubi felt calm and stable. He could probably demonstrate his jutsu before the Kyuubi did anything. “Yea sure.” 

Tayuya watched the explanation of Yamato’s techniques. How he used earth chakra to create a giant cliff side. How he created a self feeding waterfall. And how he could combine the two into wood release. Tayuya could see why Orochimaru had put a great deal of research into the technique. 

“You know,” Tayuya said to Kakashi like she was dangling a juicy tidbit. “If you really need a ninja with a wind nature, I can help you out.Wind’s my nature.” She wasn’t fantastic, she preferred her genjutsu, but she was able to cast a blast of wind with just her flute. Hard to aim though. 

“Eager to get Naruto’s training done are you?” Kakashi asked in his own knowing tone. 

Tayuya just smiled like a kid that got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Well I’d kind of like to be able to walk sooner than later.” 

Kakashi just waved her explanation off, for a prisoner she had been more than willing. “If you can get his attention.”

“Hey shithead!” Several hundred Naruto heads snapped towards Tayuya. “Not you guys, Get back to work!” Tayuya commanded and the legion of Naruto’s did as they were told. The Naruto that was talking to Yamato also tried to get back to work. “I was talking to you, get over here.” 

Naruto bumbled over towards Tayuya. He had to admit was starting to begin to like the girl. She was loud and brash, and she didn’t hide her emotions. He just wished she was slightly more modest. “What is it?” 

“You want some tips on Wind chakra right?” Tayuya egged Naruto on. 

“Yea, do you know somebody that has a wind nature?” Naruto asked excitedly. He forgot for a moment that Tayuya had been imprisoned for the past three years. “Wait are you?”

Tayuya grinned at Naruto. The last thing she had eaten was the pale slightly rust flavored goop that they gave her in the prison. She wanted something real. Something with flavor. Something expensive. “Yea, And I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll tell you my trick for wind chakra and you promise to treat me to dinner. I want real fucking food dammit.” 

After a moment’s thought Naruto pulled out his wallet. It wasn’t empty exactly. He could probably buy Tayuya a couple bowls of ramen. He had hoped to get Kakashi-sensei to buy him a round of ramen somehow. “Fine I’ll take you out to dinner.“ Ichiraku's was cheap anyways. He hoped Tayuya liked ramen. 

“Fuck yea!” Tayuya cheered. “Alright shithead pay attention.” She held up her flute towards Naruto. “What do you know about flutes?”

Naruto frowned “Nothing.” 

The groan that Tayuya let out was one of utter disappointment. Of course a Konoha ninja wouldn’t know the first thing about flutes. She doubted the idiot even knew the difference between a flute and a piccolo. “Okay fine. Do you know how to whistle?” To demonstrate it Tayuya let out a small tune from her lips. 

“Yea!” Naruto shouted happily and stuck his fingers in his mouth to make a loud sharp whistle. “Like that?”

Tayuya nodded. “Not bad shithead. Now what did you do to make that sound?”

Naruto’s face twisted into a frown of frustration. “I whistled?” 

Another groan was added to the list. “Okay listen up blondie, You whistled by forcing the air into a small channel. That’s what made the sound. Wind chakra is the same way. You want to get it as small and as thin as possible.” Tayuya held up the flute once again. “Here watch” 

Her chakra once again resonated with the flute except this time instead of just allowing it to drain Tayuya forced it through into the lip piece as she breathed out. From one of the open holes a blast of wind was sent flying out. The backlash was enough to cause Tayuya’s wheelchair to almost roll back and inch. A branch from a nearby tree was cleanly cut off. 

“Whoa!” Naruto cheered. She didn’t even use a hand sign or anything to him it was amazing. She did it with a flute too! “That’s awesome!” 

Despite herself Tayuya felt a blush come on at the praise. “Yea whatever, just remember what I said. Pinch the chakra to make it as thin as possible.” 

The clone dispelled instantly. 

Tayuya took the time to start playing again. The sound of a thousand birds calling at once flew through the field. A hundred cats purring and a dozen tigers roaring as Tayuya played that flute. 

Less than a minute after the clone dispelled one of the Naruto’s called out “Oh I cut the leaf a bit!” The clone dispelled itself instantly the remainder paused to gather what they learned. 

Kakashi watched in amusement at what Naruto was doing and at what Tayuya was doing. If she kept this up he might be out of the job as Naruto’s sensei.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of Naruto’s training was once again drowned out by the simplistic rhythm of Tayuya’s flute. The sound drifted through the field like a refreshing spring breeze filled with the promises of spring. The promise of growth, life, family, love. 

Naruto looked at Tayuya once again. He couldn’t count how many times he looked at her. It was only for a few seconds each time; he found her long red hair absolutely beautiful. He liked the way her music sounded. There was something about it that reminded him of family. Feeling reinvigorated once more Naruto returned to trying to cut his leaf. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t before long that the sun was low in the sky and while Tayuya's flute music was excellent, it did little to stave off the hunger. 

“Alright, Naruto,” Kakashi said with a loud clap of his hands. “That’s enough for today, dispel your clones.”

Tayuya slumped in her chair, ready to fall over. "Thank fuck! I hope you guys have better food than that gray slop they've been feeding me." Her stomach was empty to the point of near pain but it was nothing new considering her diet for the last three years. 

Yamato stood up from his crouched position and tossed a pill towards Tayuya. “This is a mission for us, we get food pills.” 

Tayuya sniffed at the pill. It didn't smell disgusting, and the idea that they would poison her seemed like a stupid one. Without further hesitation, she popped the pill in her mouth. It didn't taste too bad, certainly better than whatever the prison fed her even if her stomach was still empty.

Before she could complain about not having real food, the clearing was filled with smoke as Naruto’s clones began to dispel themselves. 

Naruto blinked as he stood in the clearing, several hundred hours of training flooded into his head. Several hundred hours of listening to Tayuya’s music flooded into his brain. And about one hundred hours of different versions of himself stealing glances at Tayuya. 

Every single clone had done what he had done, each one had peaked over at the beautiful redhead more than once. He had such a clear vivid image of her now. Every single one of his clones thought that Tayuya was beautiful and each one had slowly begun to develop a crush on her. 

And now that all those feelings had been condensed into one single Naruto? He didn’t have time to process it further as he collapsed onto the ground. 

Kakashi was there in a second. 

"Holy shit, we broke him!" Tayuya shouted. Naruto was literally her meal ticket. She was going to hold him to that promise of food, even if he was on his deathbed. At this point, hospital food would be a welcomed sight to her. So long as it had some taste. "If he dies does that mean I failed the mission?" 

Kakashi stood up hoisting Naruto up over his shoulder, "Naruto is fine… Probably. Maybe next time we do it with fewer clones." He looked at Tayuya and Yamato. "You're in charge of our troublesome flute player, Yamato. I think it'll be best if Naruto stays a night in the hospital, just in case." 

Tayuya bristled when Yamato began to make his way towards her. "Don’t fucking pick me up again!" Sure, she might not be fully mobile on her own at the moment but she wasn’t a goddamn sack of potatoes. 

"So you expect me to push you the whole three miles back into Konoha?" Yamato asked somewhat skeptically but a smug smile was plastered on his face. 

“I can fucking roll myself!” Tayuya proclaimed as she pushed on her wheels as hard as she could. All she managed was a barely noticeable slide against the slightly moist grass. “Fucking cheap piece of shit! I can’t get any fucking traction!” It didn’t stop her from continuing to try rolling the wheels, though. Each push picked up more grass and dirt than the last. 

The sound of Yamato's laughter caused Tayuya to snap. "The fuck are you laughing at, bastard? Think it's funny to laugh at a cripple?" In the prison she had never felt like a cripple, she was just a prisoner. Now out in the open, the difference between her and those that could walk felt jarring. 

She pushed harder against the wheels, her hands dirtying with each forceful push. She looked down at her useless legs. There was nothing she wouldn’t give to be able to walk again. She hated that blond haired bitch and that stupid smart ass that did this to her even though she knew she shouldn’t. She lost and they won. She knew that she was lucky that she had even gotten away at all but it still didn’t feel fair. 

The reward Tsunade had offered her for completing this mission echoed in her mind. Tayuya swallowed hard, almost as though she was physically swallowing her pride. It somehow hurt more having to ask for help. "Fine, carry me." 

She was beginning to hate the sound of Yamato’s chuckle. “Good, because you were rolling in the wrong direction.” 

As Tayuya was lifted like potato sack once again, she wanted to scream in frustration. So she did. It wasn’t like it would impact anything, it just felt satisfying. 

The trees passed beneath Tayuya once again. Yamato had her so that she couldn’t see where she was going. It annoyed her to no end to not know. “Hey, tree fucker. Where the hell are you taking me?” She tried not to squeal when Yamato adjusted her on his shoulder, grimacing and stifling the noise. Yamato, as much as she despised him, was a well-trained ninja who was not going to drop her. Probably. 

“We have a temporary holding cell for you to stay in until we find a more permanent place.” Yamato’s neutral tone at her name-calling only pissed her off more. It was even worse than that fatass. 

Tayuya nodded, she was still a prisoner, even if she will have a really big yard. At least she still had the flute. She felt the warm wood-like material once again. She was going to play it as often as she could, even if for no other reason than to keep the other prisoners up all night. 

It didn’t hit her until she saw her new cell. The moment they arrived, though, she was confronted with exactly how much she didn’t want to be in there. It was small, just as small as her last one. There was a window that she wouldn’t be able to see out of. The bed at least looked somewhat warmer and had two pillows. But it was just another hole. 

She looked at Yamato. She hated how weak she felt when she looked at him. But she didn’t want to go back into the hole. She wasn’t going to beg, though. There was no way she was going to reduce herself down to that level. “Please, can I stay outside? Just set me up with a blanket. Anywhere but here.” Except, her words came out as a desperate whisper and she cursed herself for it. 

"It's just for tonight," Yamato assured her, though his words did no such thing. 

Tayuya felt her chair move forward, into the cell. Without thinking she brought her hands up to brace against the wall and the cell door attempting to stop herself from entering. "No please! I don't want to. Not another hole. Please!" She begged, abandoning the last shred of her dignity. She had just gotten out, they had just had just granted her the tiniest taste of freedom and now they were going to rip it away from her again. Tayuya wasn’t going to let them. All she longed for was to be outside and to be as far away from another prison. God knows she’s spent long enough being trapped.

However, Yamato was relentless. Her arms, weak from disuse, gave away and she was inside the cell. 

“Please no.” She whispered again. 

Yamato sighed and backed out of the cell. “Get some sleep, I think we’ll be gone longer tomorrow, I’ll pick you up early.” 

At that point, she didn’t bother with a response, instead sat still and waited for the sound of the cell door shutting behind her before readying herself for the tears. They never came. Slowly, she turned her head to check if Yamato was still there. 

Nobody was there.The prison door was slightly ajar. 

Slowly, she spun her chair around and peered out into the hallway. An ANBU member stood at one end and there was a staircase leading up at the other end. She stared at the monkey masked ANBU for a long moment. The bastard didn’t move. Tired of waiting, Tayuya rolled herself out of the cell, never once breaking eye contact with the ANBU.

By some miracle, he didn't seem to care. Pursing her lips, she rolled herself and back into the cell then back out to see if there would be any sort of reaction. The ANBU didn’t budge. Even if he didn’t care, she did. This meant that she could leave if she wanted! 

Except… The only way out was a staircase leading up. While she had mastered the art of going downstairs relatively quickly, upstairs was a bit more difficult. Scratch that, a lot more difficult. Still, Tayuya took the small victory for what it was and without a second thought, she ripped the cover off the bed and took the pillow as well. 

In the hallway, there was enough distance that the world beyond the window was visible and she could look out to see the star-filled night. As small as the window was, the view was stunning. It was incredible how she took the simple things in life for granted once upon a time.

Tayuya waved her flute at the ANBU. "Do you care if I play?" 

The monkey was just a silent as he had been for the entire time. 

Once again, Tayuya let her soul out into the world through her flute. There was an elated tone that was underlying each sharp whistle. The tune carried with it the sound of freedom and happiness. The music seemed to dance with itself in a fast paced and frantic matter that eventually blended into something rhythmic and beautiful. It sounded like the dancing flames of a summertime campfire with the company of friends and nature. 

It sounded like Tayuya’s hope. 

 

XXXX

 

Tayuya. 

Naruto knew he was in trouble when that was the first thought that entered his mind. It wasn’t just one simple thing about Tayuya that he thought of. It was just her in her entirety. His mind was unusually free of the thoughts of being Hokage, or ‘what should flavor ramen should I have for breakfast’. The blonde didn’t think about Sakura or how he was going to get Sasuke back. It was just… Tayuya. 

It wasn’t just her red locks and the way her bangs fell right in place between her eyes even though she probably didn’t even comb it or the sharpness of her chocolate brown eyes. His thoughts of her went beyond the superficial ones he’s had whenever he thought of the past crushes he’s had. It was the way Tayuya yelled, the brashness in her words despite the delicate sound of her voice. Not to mention, her music. 

Although he knew that he had only spent just a few hours with her yesterday, it felt like he had sat behind her in class for years, just watching her. Like he’s had months worth of sneaking peeks at her. 

“Tayuya.” He tested the sound in his mouth. It felt like a drop of honey, smooth and sweet. 

“What?” The familiar female voice disrupted his thoughts. Sakura stood in the entrance of his room with a clipboard in her hand and with a concerned frown. 

Naruto couldn’t help but think that Tayuya was prettier. 

"Oh, uhh… Nothing Sakura!” Naruto explained quickly, chuckling and rubbing the nape of his neck sheepishly. “It’s just someone who is helping me train." He didn't want Sakura to know that Tayuya was one of the sound ninjas that had helped Sasuke escape. Or worse yet, that he maybe, sort of, definitely had a somewhat major crush on Tayuya because of his clone training. 

“Of course you would be thinking about training.” Sakura muttered, her strides echoing throughout the hospital room as she neared. “Kakashi-sensei said to meet him at the same place as soon as you’re feeling better.” 

Naruto was out of the window before the blankets hit the bed. "Thanks, Sakura! I’ve got to train! See you later!" 

"You idiot!" Sakura shouted after him, the exasperation in her voice almost palpable. "You could at least let me check to see if you're alright!" 

Like anyone with half a brain, Naruto chose to avoid Sakura's immediate wrath and continued running. He had the training to do. And no small part of him was excited to see Tayuya. 

XXXX

“What the fuck do you mean? We’re just going to wait here and see if he shows up?!” Tayuya’s voice echoed throughout the clearing. “Seriously, you two are fucking jounins and we’re just going to fucking sit here and wait for that idiot to show up?”

Kakashi peered at Tayuya over his book and sighed, probably more so at the volume of her voice than the thought of having to wait for Naruto. “Well, Naruto recovers fast, and both Yamato and I are still in our recovery period from our last mission so we’re effectively on reserve right now.” 

Tayuya huffed and blew a single strand of hair out of her face. “Can’t one of you go bring his dumbass here then?” It was only worse that they had told her not to play her flute until Naruto got here. Bastards didn’t know good music if it bit them in the ass. 

"You know I could have just left you in the prison until Naruto got here," Yamato said with his small twisted smile. 

“Shutting up.” The redhead responded almost immediately. 

It wasn’t long before Naruto leapt into the clearing with a giant smile on his face. He saw Tayuya sitting there and nearly froze for a second just to stare at her. He could feel his cheeks heating up, his palms already getting sweaty. 

“Hey shithead, quit gawking at me and get to training!” Tayuya shouted at him. She didn’t like the way he was staring at her with his mouth open like that. It made him look stupid. And the sooner he got to training, the sooner they finished his training. And the sooner he managed to complete his training, the sooner she would regain the usage of her legs back. 

She had a long list of asses to kick. 

“You sure you’re okay, Naruto? You seem… more out of it than usual.” Kakashi droned from behind his book. 

Naruto jumped at Kakashi’s voice and quickly made his way over to his sensei. “Kakashi-sensei, I have a question before we start,” Naruto whispered lowly. He did not want Tayuya to hear what he was about to say. 

A sigh. “Of course you do.” 

“So you know how Shadow clones transfer memories?” Naruto asked, his arms flailing in wild gestures that didn’t quite translate to what he was saying. 

“Yes, Naruto. We went over this yesterday, remember what Tayuya showed you?” While Kakashi didn’t exactly know what Tayuya had done to Naruto, he had a few guesses. Despite how rough Tayuya was around the edges she was, she seemed to be somewhat of a good person. 

Naruto attempted to shove that memory into the back of his mind. It kept bouncing back. “Yeah, yeh, but do they transfer feelings too?” 

The question caught Kakashi off guard for a moment. "It's possible. I've never heard of it happening before, why?" 

“All of my clones yesterday kept looking at Tayuya, and now I might have a crush on her,” Naruto slumped his shoulders with each whisper as though being weighed down by the reality of the situation. 

“Well that’s certainly different,” Kakashi responded, unable to stifle a chuckle. “Will this impact your training?” 

Naruto began to say something except his eyes darted towards Tayuya for a quick second and the hamsters in his brain stopped running to stare at her. “I uhh… Maybe?” 

“Normally when a woman has a crush on me, they tell me and after a few minutes of talking it goes away.” Kakashi said thoughtfully. It had absolutely nothing to do with his favorite book series. Nothing. “So maybe if you tell Tayuya about it, it might go away?”

Naruto gulped. He could run at Orochimaru, jump head first into an Akatsuki lair and grab Tsunade's breasts. His courage, though, stopped short at talking to Tayuya. "Isn't there some other way?" 

“No training until you confess,” with that, Kakashi was leaning back against the tree and opening his book to the exact page he left off of. 

Tayuya watched in suspicion as Naruto walked up to her. It was starting to piss her off how he kept trying to look at anything but her. So she glared at him. “What the fuck do you want now?” 

“I love you.” 

That was not at all what Naruto wanted to say. 

For a long moment, the entire field was silent. Naruto’s eyes went comically wide and he bit his bottom lip, terrified at what else his mouth might say. Yamato looked at the two incredulously. And Kakashi just turned the page in his book. 

Tayuya slowly turned her head as she looked up at the blond idiot that was standing in front of her. When her ear was almost parallel with her shoulder she stopped. “You fucking what?”

The silence dragged on. 

“Holy shit dude, I’ve heard of virgins saying “I love you” after their first fuck, but what the crap man? I flash you my tits once and suddenly you think we’re soul mates or something?” Tayuya spat out. She couldn’t understand anything that was happening anymore. She had to still be under some kind of fucked up Konoha genjutsu, right? 

“I didn’t mean to say that!” Naruto shouted after his mouth decided to start working again. “I meant to say that I have a crush on you now because all of my clones yesterday kept looking at you!”

“So you decided to say you love me? What the fuck kind of logic is that?” Tayuya glared at Naruto. The fact that he actually shrank back down was satisfying. So she hadn’t quite lost her touch after all.

“I didn’t mean it like that! It just came out!” Naruto whined. “It’s because of the clones okay? I thought you were pretty before training yesterday, and then your music was awesome so my clones all kind of started to like you and now I kind of like you a lot more because each one kept looking over at you. I’m sorry, okay!” 

Tayuya snorted at that and crossed her arms. She turned her head away from Naruto. Of course, the stupid idiot would be the first person to ever call her beautiful. Stupid ass blond. "Well, then why even tell me this now? You couldn't keep it in your pants for a couple days until training was over?"

“Kakashi-sensei said that it would help me lose my crush on you! It’s what happens to him when a lady has a crush on him!” Naruto desperately pointed at his sensei with both arms as though that would somehow miraculously transfer the blame onto the jounin. 

With a barely noticeable eye twitch, Tayuya turned her attention to the platinum blond haired man that was leaning against the tree no more than twenty paces away. Another name to add to the list of asses she needed to kick. "That's because your sensei is a perverted loser whose romantic experience is bumping into old ladies on his way home from the strip club!" 

For a moment, Naruto wasn’t sure which sensei she was referring to. “Look, I’m sorry okay? Just forget about it!” His attempt to flee was stopped as Tayuya grabbed onto his arm. 

“Uh-uh.” Tayuya shook her head smoothly sending her greasy red hair flying around her her. “You’re not getting off that easy, you having a crush on me is going to mess with your training. So for today you’re going to leave a clone with me and we’re going to talk until you hate me, got it?” 

She wasn’t exactly sure why that sounded like a good idea. It might have something to do with the fact that he was the first person to call her beautiful or maybe because he liked her music. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was the first boy to say “I love you” to her, obviously.

Naruto looked down at Tayuya and grinned. “Sure, sounds like a good idea.” 

Tayuya releases Naruto's arm and watched the idiot run off to his sensei. She couldn't help but click her teeth. "Don't sound so happy about spending time with me." She muttered quietly to herself. 

The field was filled with clones moments later and Tayuya found herself playing her flute once again. A dull low tune poured out of the flute like a long early morning walk. It expressed the slow start of a new day with each step being one filled with promise. 

As her song went on it picked up with sharp sudden tones that played with the dull long tones like the little things in life that make each day its own. A mellow beat took over for the dull tones as the day began to pick up, nearly matching pace for the joy of the sudden sharps. Until finally it was complete. 

Tayuya opened her eyes to the sound of a single idiot clapping frantically. She had never gotten applauded before. Not for just her music at any rate. And yet here was this dumbass blond clapping like an idiot. "The fuck are you clapping for?" 

Naruto tilted his head at Tayuya like a confused puppy. “Ehh? Why wouldn’t I clap? It was a good song!” 

"It's not a song you bastard, it's music. Songs have words and music can be just instruments!" Although she wasn't entirely sure if that was true or not. It was just her own personal definition to discriminate between the two. 

Obediently, Naruto nodded in agreement and shifted around till he was in sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Oh, neat I never really paid any attention to music and stuff like that before.” He said, before hastily adding. “I really do like yours, though."

Tayuya snorted. "Flattery will get you nothing but a swift kick in the ass." Seriously, didn't this guy understand that too nice was a thing? Already he was twice as nice as the entire goddamn sound village. And then some. Stupid optimistic bastard.

"So what'd you want to talk about?" Naruto asked. He could feel the jealous glares of some of his clones in the back of his head. It definitely wasn’t a good thing but he got to spend some time with Tayuya so it was probably worth the risk.

"I told you. We're going to talk until you realize that liking me is a terrible idea then you're going to dispel all those fucking feelings and finally we're going to get back to training." Tayuya pointed her flute at Naruto as though to threaten him with it, huffing as she explained everything in a matter-of-fact tone. 

"About what, though?" Naruto asked in confusion.

It took everything she had to suppress a shriek of frustration. "Well, so far we're off to a fantastic start. I'm already starting to regret this idea.” She scowled. “Has anybody ever told you you're annoying?"

"Twice and daily," Naruto responded without missing a beat. "But that's mostly just from Sakura and Shikamaru, they think everything I do is annoying."

The name made her blood boil. "Shikamaru is the dumbass shadow user with the pineapple shaped head, right?"

Not quite sensing the killing intent that rose with the name, Naruto nodded, happily oblivious. "Well, Shikamaru probably thinks everything is annoying so it's not my fault."

"And nobody else ever thinks you're annoying?" Tayuya asked with sarcasm practically dripping off words. There was an awkward silence that stretched on a little too long for comfort and she grimaced. "Alright, here's the deal. I'm going to tell you my shitty life story and you're going to sit there and listen to the entire fucking thing and not say a goddamn thing until you think you hate me or at the very least don't think it's a good idea to have a crush on me."

"You have my complete and utter- whoa." The clone wobbled for a moment and held his head. In the field behind them, the training clones all vanished as each and every one had just learned how to cut the leaf quickly and efficiently. It was time for the next stage.

A soft hum escaped Tayuya. The clone training wasn’t such a bad idea after all. At this rate, they’ll be done in no time. There was still the matter of the… Crush to get rid of, though. Once that was over and done with, they’ll get a proper roll.

"Alright, good. So listen up, there's not a lot to it my life is kind of shitty and I’m a shitty person, got it?" Tayuya waited for the blond to recover from absorbing all the information and gave her a dull nod before continuing.

No details were spared as Tayuya told him her entire story, of how she was an orphan near the coast with nothing but a wooden flute until Orochimaru showed up and "saved" her. He tested his seals on her and tested her abilities with the flute. His interest in her wavered all year around. Whenever she discovered something new with music he would get excited and they would run experiments until she could barely move and Orochimaru would move one, directing his attention elsewhere elsewhere. She had killed, for Orochimaru, in hopes of retaining that attention. Even been pleased, that he had included her in his plans to kill the third Hokage and help Sasuke leave the village. 

Except, when she was finished, Naruto was still sitting there with a curious look plastered on his face.

"Well? Do you fucking hate me yet?" Tayuya snapped, perhaps a tad too harshly. At this point in time, she was out of material and just wanted it to be done. Of course, she could probably just yell at him until her face turned blue but there was the chance that he liked that. The pervert had a crush on her so she wouldn't doubt it if he was into some weird shit.

"Did you enjoy those things?" Naruto asked simply.

"Fucking what?" Tayuya asked. She just did them because she had to there was no enjoying her life. The only thing in her life that brought her any fucking joy was when she was outside and just able to play her flute and making Orochimaru meant more of that. 

“I don’t think you did those things because you wanted to. And I don’t think you liked doing those things either.” There was a softness in the way he spoke, a sharp contrast to the usually brash attitude he seemed to have. “I don’t think a bad person can play music like you do. It’s too beautiful.” 

The Naruto clone disappeared as Tayuya whacked him on the head with her flute. "Dumbass." She turned to see a row of shirtless Narutos wave at her from their bridge. She found her face heat up slightly at the sight of them. 

Just great, her plan had backfired and now she was the pervert. 

With a sigh, Tayuya rose her flute to her lips, desperate to think of something else.


	3. Chapter 3

Stupid sexy bastard. Tayuya blamed the fact that she had been in prison for three years. Yes that is exactly the reason why. She just hadn’t been around a boy in three years. That’s why she was staring at Naruto.

And enjoying it. He was wet. He was shirtless. The water cascaded down his well muscled chest and abs. She could see the seal that held the Kyuubi as well, it swirled on his stomach like a tribal tattoo. 

She wondered what his reaction would be if she slowly traced her finger along the seal. Was it sensitive? Would he shudder and moan her name? Would he purr like a fox? Wait did foxes purr?

Stupid bastard. Tayuya huffed and snapped away from Naruto’s training. How the fuck was she supposed to just ignore somebody that came up to her and said, “I love you.” even if the dumbass didn’t mean to fucking say that. He was still fucking sincere. 

Was she just supposed to ignore that? Like he just showed up and went “Hey you want to be kind of happy and not bored for your entire life?” after she had been sitting in a fucking cell for three years. 

The worse part about it was the fact that she kind of wanted to return those feelings. And she fucking hated it. She hated him for complicating things. She hated herself for feeling fucking weak about it. She clicked her tongue. “Stupid blonde bastard.” 

A noise off in the forest caught her attention. It sounded like choking. She saw what appeared to be a pale ass mother fucker and a bitch with pink hair gagging. “Hey, what are you two doing over there?!” 

This caught the attention of Kakashi. “Ahh, it’s just Sai and Sakura.” Kakashi wasted no time in waving over the two over. “They’re Naruto’s teammates so try not to make them fall in love with you too.” 

“You ever wonder if that’s why you’re still single?” Tayuya shot back with a glare. It wasn’t her fault the blond had ADHD and spent a hundred hours staring at her in a single day. She snapped her sight back at the waterfall. A dozen or so blond heads quickly turned away from her glare. 

A frown etched onto her face Tayuya turned back towards the two newest leaf assholes. The boy was showing a lot of skin for how pale he was. There was pale, and then there was Neon white. He looked like he’d be a bottom. 

The girl had short pink hair that made her look like she knew how to eat a fish taco. 

“So what brings you two here?” Kakashi asked with mild curiosity in his voice. He still sounded bored. 

“Well, Naruto ran away from the hospital today to train here, so I decided to bring him some uhh… food pills.” Sakura gestured towards the small basket she was carrying. “But uhh... they’re really bad.” 

Tayuya heard the word food and was all in. Sure it was a food pill. But she really wanted any kind of food inside of her. Even a food pill would be great. "Alright, pinkie let me try one." 

"Huh, what? No, they're not very good!" Sakura shouted and moved the basket away from Tayuya. "Who are you anyways?" 

“Ahh yes this is Tayuya, she’s here to help with Naruto’s training.” Tayuya glared at Kakashi for a moment. 

“I can introduce myself!” Tayuya snapped with a frown. It pissed her off more when all Kakashi did was flip a page in that stupid green book. “Nice to meet you, pinkie.” 

Sakura gave a nervous laugh towards Tayuya. “Hello, I’m Sakura I actually think I’m going to be helping Master-Tsunade with your surgery.” She recognized the name through a medical file she had been given earlier this morning while she was at the hospital. 

“Wait what?” Tayuya asked in a mild sense of shock. “You’re going to be helping the blonde bimbo with my legs?” 

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Sakura’s nervous chuckled died down quickly after that. 

Sai stepped forward an overly cheerful smile on his face. "And I'm Sai, it is nice to meet you…. Rotten tomato." 

Sakura tensed as Sai decided on his new nickname for Tayuya. 

Kakashi appeared amused.

Tayuya's face twisted in confusion at the nickname. Tomato because of her hair, rotten to insult her? Finally, somebody that spoke her language! "Nice to meet ya, Casper! Still collecting donations for the sperm bank on your face?" 

Sai’s smile faltered for a moment. This was the first time somebody had given him a nickname back. Not even Naruto and Sakura had given him a nickname. “You gave me a nickname, does that mean we’re friends?” 

"Nope." Tayuya said with a loud pop at the p, "But you're off to a good start." 

Sai's smile returned quickly, "Ahh well, that's good." 

Tayuya turned to Sakura once more, “So what do you say let me try one of your food pill things? I’m fucking hungry. They don’t feed me out here.”

Sakura presented with the food pill with a bit of reluctance, "I'm warning you it's really bad, but it has all of your daily nutritious." 

Tayuya eyed the perfectly smooth brown food pill. It had a small shine to it. It looked a bit like a polished ball of shit. It smelled like dirt. Still, it seemed edible. With no flourish, she popped the sphere into her mouth. It was soft yet somehow crunchy and had the texture of a ball of ants. With a gulp, she swallowed it. "Yep tastes like ass." 

“I’m surprised you swallowed it.” Sai’s smile never faltered. 

Tayuya shrugged It tasted bad, but it wasn’t that bad. At Least it had some semblance of taste to it. “It’s a lot better than what four-eyes made, and only slightly worse than the prison food you guys serve.” 

A brief awkward silence fell over the group for a moment as that statement settled into the mind of Sakura. “I’m sorry, but what were you imprisoned for exactly?” 

"Tayuya was one of the sound four a jonin group that was loyal to Orochimaru and carried out numerous missions for him, Notable ones were the assassination of the third Hokage and the kidnapping of Sasuke Uchiha." Sai spoke quickly. 

“Oi!” Tayuya spat out. “We didn’t kidnap Sasuke at all, he came to us!” She didn’t think it was in her best interest to mention the fact that if he didn’t show up they were going to kidnap him anyways. 

The handle on Sakura's basket snapped violently and it contents fell to the ground. Sakura's fist shook with rage. "You're the reason why…" Sakura muttered she leveled a glare at Tayuya that was filled with pure hatred. 

Tayuya lacked the ability to back down from a challenge. “The reason why, what flatty?” 

The ground trembled when Sakura's heel slammed into the ground. For a moment there was silence. "You're the reason why Sasuke isn't here anymore! If it was for you, he'd still be here!" 

"Whoop dee fucking doo!" Tayuya spat out. "Oh no, I was doing my own fucking mission that I had to do. Maybe if you had a pair of tits he wouldn't have been so happy to hop into a fucking barrel to get delivered to Orochimaru so he could suck his limp dick!" 

"You bitch!" Sakura shouted and with remarkable speed she leaped forward and grabbed Tayuya by the throat. That sense of acceptance, that level-headed serenity that she had built up these last few years was replaced with a singular rage. 

"Sakura stop!" Naruto shouted. He leaped down next to the group still wet and shirtless. 

Kakashi chimed in as well, “Just calm down Sakura, Tayuya is an important part of Naruto’s training.”

Sakura ignored Kakashi and focused on Naruto. She couldn’t fathom how betrayed she felt at this moment. Naruto was her partner, they were going to bring Sasuke back together! Now he was trying to protect one of the people responsible for Sasuke leaving? “She’s why Sasuke left Naruto!” 

“Sasuke left because of Orochimaru and the cursed seal! Tayuya has the same curse seal, why does Sasuke get to use that as an excuse but Tayuya doesn’t?” 

For a moment only the sound of the waterfall resonated between the group. Then Sakura dropped Tayuya to the ground. “It’s not the same Naruto.” Sakura barely mumbled. 

Tayuya looked up at the pink haired bitch with an ugly sneer on her face. "Listen you bitch I'll fight you after I get my legs back, you got that? Unless you get off by beating cripples." 

Sakura looked down at Tayuya with watery eyes. With a huff, she turned on her heels and began to walk back to Konoha. She passed by an innocent tree. "Shannaro!" 

The ancient tree was turned into kindling with a single punch. 

“Sai, can you make sure Sakura doesn’t hurt anything on her way back?” Kakashi asked calmly, he was glad that Naruto had chosen to intervene when he had. He wasn’t certain he could defuse Sakura as peacefully as Naruto had. 

Sai nodded dutifully. “I’ll make sure the hag is okay.” 

Tayuya chuckled from the ground. "I'm starting to like you Casper." 

Sai left the training field happy that he had made a new friend that day, one that also gave people nicknames as well. All he had to do is find out what a casper was. 

With a stubborn pride that refused to go down, Tayuya began to crawl her way back into her chair. She hated how much she needed the thing. She was going to burn the piece of shit as soon as she could walk again and then piss on its ashes. 

She had just managed to touch the chair when a pair of arms encircled around her. “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re...” She trailed off as she found herself staring up past the blonde's chest and up into his face. He was scrawny, yet defined. And she was close enough to see that he did indeed have some little blond hairs on his bare chest. 

The way his neck muscles flexed and rolled into the soft curve of his shoulders fascinated her to no end. There was something utterly fascinating about his trapezoids that drew her in. She had to resist the urge to touch them and wrap her arms around them. 

Naruto smiled and quickly moved Tayuya to her chair. “Sorry about Sakura, she’s in love with Sasuke. But you can try to be nicer to her, she’s my teammate too.” 

Tayuya felt her face heat up at the way the blond idiot was holding her. It wasn’t fair. He tells her he loves her accepts her life story and then he has the balls to say that she’s not a bad person. No way in hell was she going to fall for his knight in shining armor act. She twisted her head away from his and looked back at the waterfall. “Whatever!”

Her hand found its way onto his chest when he moved suddenly. She found a nice long chest hair on accident. Without warning, she plucked it hard. 

“Ow hey! That hurt!” Naruto whined and nearly dropped Tayuya on the ground. 

Tayuya turned to look at Naruto as he slowly dropped her down into her chair. He then bent down and picked up her flute which had fallen when Sakura grabbed her. She could only accept it with a smile. "Alright, enough flirting with the pretty redhead Lover-Boy, get back to training!" 

Naruto smiled widely at his new nickname and gave Tayuya a mock salute. "Yes, Ma'am!" 

She had never been defended like that before. It was odd she liked to do things on her own but at the same time, having Naruto stop Sakura and then help her into her chair was its own kind of nice. She wondered what she could make Naruto do if she asked. 

“I wonder what Naruto would say if I told him you were staring at him like that?” 

Tayuya snapped out of her inner musings and glared at Kakashi. She hadn’t been staring at him, just lost in thought in the general direction Naruto was in. She totally didn’t think that it was interesting how Naruto’s back muscles moved when he flailed his arms. “Want to find out if you can read that book with your anus?” 

Kakashi spared Tayuya a small glance before he returned to his book. "You have an odd fascination with asses." 

“I will use that book to give you a paper cut on the tip of your dick.” 

Years of shinobi training did little to suppress the shudder that ran through Kakashi as he imagined what Tayuya had just said. A small fear began to develop that if that girl ever learned to apply her insults into a genjutsu, the world would be a much worse place for men. 

Tayuya shook her head and began to play her flute again. Her only queue that the flute was having any effect on the Kyuubi was how relaxed Yamato became the instant she started playing. And the cheerful smile Naruto and his clones gave her. 

XXXX

The stars were something Tayuya didn't know she missed. She only had a small portal to see them last night. Now the entire sky was ripe for her viewing pleasure. To her, the sky represented what she had been dreaming of for nearly three years. Freedom. 

Maybe she should invest in an astrology book. Or was it astronomy? Or not, she didn't need other people to tell her that the stars were in the sky and that some of them looked like. Like those four stars that were kind of in a straight line, she'd call those for Tayuya's flute. And then there was that one that was kind of in the middle of a circle, she'd call that one lopsided boob. 

Her tranquil night was interrupted by Naruto. “Why are we stopping? I can keep going!” 

Kakashi sighed and prodded the small fire he built with a stick sending a flurry of sparks up into the air. “Listen Naruto, just look at Yamato he’s positively drained.” 

Yamato shifted when Naruto’s attention focused on him. “Actually I’m not as tired as we expected, I think the flute is making things far easier than we thought it would.” 

Naruto turned to Kakashi expectedly, like his dad had just told him he could go to the candy story if his mom said yes. Kakashi could only slouch in disappointment. “If you get Tayuya to agree then sure.”

"Fuck no!" Tayuya snapped the second Naruto looked in her direction. "It's dark as fuck out if you trip on a Kunai and die then the mission fails and if my mission fails I don't get my legs fixed." 

Naruto frowned and made his way over to Tayuya. “But I need to keep training so I can get strong enough to bring Sasuke back!”

There was that name again. Tayuya frowned, she was starting to actually feel guilty about the whole event. “What’s the deal with Sasuke, you and pinkie seem so obsessed the prick?” 

Naruto seemed to deflate at that.The abundance of energy fled from him quickly. “Sasuke he was on our team, and yea he was a bastard, still, he was like a brother to me.” 

Tayuya sank into her shoulders and looked back up towards the stars. The idea of going so far for somebody else was a foreign one to her. “Must be nice, having people care for you like that. Hell, might even be nice to care for somebody like that.” 

Naruto sat down on the ground next to Tayuya’s chair and stared up at the stars with her. “Just you wait, If you stay in Konoha you can get both of those things, Believe it!” 

Tayuya whipped her head at him sending her hair into a flurry. “And why’s that Lover-Boy?” Her smile twisted into a predatory one as she stared down at him. “Thinking you can do both?” 

That made Naruto's face turn red though his whisker marks somehow remained the same. "What? Maybe, yeah okay what's wrong with that?" 

“Hmm, I suppose you can dream now, can’t you?” Tayuya hummed to herself. “Hey, help me to the ground I want to sleep on my back tonight.” For a moment it worried her how readily she asked Naruto for help. Before it took all of her willpower to ask Yamato. 

With a quick hop, Naruto was on his feet and presented two helping hands towards Tayuya. His hands were so big compared to hers, his veins were thicker and seemed to twitch with every motion. Where hers had become soft and delicate from her time in Isolation, his were hard and rough from work. 

Tayuya rather liked his hands. She imagined for a moment what they would feel like dancing along her back. Her legs dangled helplessly as Naruto sat her down gently. Much better than the way Yamato handled her like a sack of potatoes. 

When Naruto let go of her Tayuya he wasted no time in flopping down onto the ground. Her arms flopped hopelessly above her head and she could feel the cold breeze on the bit of her stomach that was revealed.

She briefly considered flashing Naruto again. “Alright lover-boy, tell me what kind of a sad life you lived that you confess to the first girl that flashes you her tits. Wait no I got this, you’re depressed because Pinkie dumped you right?” 

“I didn’t mean to say that!” Naruto fell to the ground next to tayuya so that his head was level with hers. Though he didn’t look up at the stars. 

Tayuya made a decidedly unladylike noise with her nose. “Whatever you say Mr.”I like you enough to accidently say I love you.” Like shit dude.” 

Naruto sighed, there wasn't a whole lot he could say about that. And after today's training, it was slightly worse. Okay, it was a lot worse. He felt like he's known Tayuya for years now. When she dispelled his clone that had listened to her story that got sent into every clone on the waterfall. Each one had already been stealing glances at her in addition to feeling jealous of the clone that got to spend time with her. But after that, each one began to think about what she said and grew to appreciate her in a new way. "As soon as this training is done I'm never using shadow clones to train ever again!"

Tayuya could only laugh at that. “What? Afraid you might fall in love with some other innocent girl?” 

It was Naruto's turn to snort. "Ha, you innocent? It wasn't even fifteen minutes before I saw your breasts."

Tayuya turned her head and locked eyes Naruto with a smile on her face. The blond was starting to understand her pretty good. “You want to see them again?” 

Naruto’s face turned an odd shade of pink which he tried to hide by looking away from her and staring at the stars. “Maybe later.” He didn’t want Yamato or Kakashi to see them, or hear him say yes.

“Ha!” Tayuya laughed out in victory. Her laughter died down slowly and ended with a sigh. “But really this training is powerful, look how far you’ve come in a couple of days, shit you keep this up and you could beat the piss out of Orochimaru, no problem.” 

That was a thought Tayuya never thought she would have. Orochimaru had always been something of an unkillable monster in her mind. She only saw the man vulnerable once and that was after his fight with the third Hokage and injured he still stood his ground against the other two Sannin.

"Yea I'll have to do that to get Sasuke back, and I'll find some way to remove your curse seal!" Naruto declared with a wide smile on his face. He punched the air and just let it hang there for a while.

Tayuya brought her hand to her seal. She couldn't imagine her life without it. The thing always hurt or itched in some way a constant nagging that reminded her that she served Orochimaru. But still. She liked when she used it. She felt powerful. In a near whisper, she asked, "What if, I don't want to get rid of my curse seal?"

Naruto’s head snapped towards her eyes wide with shock. “What you mean you like having Orochimaru being able to control you?”

"Fuck no!" Tayuya spat and turned to glare at Naruto. "I fucking hate that it's linked with him. But at the same time, I like it okay, it makes me feel strong."

For a long moment the two could only stare at each other, both trying figure out what the other was going to say.

Then at last Tayuya sighed. "Fine, I guess I'd rather be weak than linked with that fucker anyways. Besides, I don't think the bimbo would let me do any training or fighting."

“Bimbo?” Naruto questioned. 

"The Hokage lady with the giant tits." Tayuya used her hands to imitate large breasts on her chest. "Like holy crap, it's like they gave the position to whoever had the biggest tits in the village."

"Oh, you're talking about granny!" Naruto said cheerfully.

"The fucking Hokage is your grandma?" Tayuya looked at Naruto in both shock and suspicion. "I mean you're both blond and kind of stupid."

"What? No, She's just secretly really old so I call her granny." Naruto waved off the notion that he was in any way shape or forum related to Tsunade. "And don't worry about her, I can totally convince her to let you train with me all the time."

Tayuya turned to look at the blond. She wasn't certain if he was just trying to flirt with her or if he was actually that nice. It felt like he meant those words, though. It was weird that everything he said felt genuine. No guessing about hidden meanings or worrying that he would stab her in the back. He just spoke the truth. "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

She knew she did. If she was honest with herself Tayuya would admit that she liked the blond's goofy smile. That she liked the way he came to her rescue when Pinkie tried to clean her clock. She liked feeling that somebody liked her for her. She liked how he just seemed to be able to roll with her naturally in conversation.

Her smile stretched into a wicked one. "Alright, Lover-boy I've made my decision."

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. "About what?"

Her grin only grew, “You, I’ve decided I’m going to give you a chance, and I want the whole deal dates, flowers and all that other annoying romance stuff until I tell you to stop, got it?” She watched in amusement as Naruto’s eyes widened in surprise then his grin widened all the more. 

Naruto smiled up at the stars. “Sweet I have a girlfriend.” 

Tayuya snorted. “No way Lover-boy. You gotta earn the right to call me that.” 

“You got it!” Naruto’s smile never faltered. 

Tayuya used her arm to scoot herself closer to Naruto and got close enough to his ear that he could feel her breath. "I'll tell you what, you make sure that the bimbo and pinkie fix my legs up good, and the first thing I'm going to do with them is find you, wrap them around your waist and fuck you until you need a wheelchair."

Tayuya could almost hear the sound of every gear in Naruto’s brain come to a sudden stop as his hormones got the message before his brain did. His face went from bright red to ghostly pale in a couple of seconds. And he stood straight up and began to walk towards the waterfall. “Hey where you going?” 

Naruto didn’t stop his brisk pace or even look back over his shoulder. “Cold shower!”

Tayuya roared with laughter at that response. It felt good to have that kind of influence on somebody. 

Kakashi watched the exchange with mild amusement behind his book. It was actually more entertaining that what he was reading anyways. Perhaps he could have a little fun with them tonight. 

Yamato, on the other hand, watched the two with slightly more concern. Because of the flute, the girl had tremendous influence on the Kyuubi. And now she had influence on Naruto. "Should we be worried about how he's wrapped around her finger now?"

Kakashi rolled his eye. “Naruto has a habit of turning enemies into trusted friends and besides I think he’s earned a bit of trust.” 

“It’s not Naruto I’m worried about.” Yamato muttered, it was just so likely that Tayuya was doing this for her own personal gain. Naruto was close to Tsunade after all. 

“If it worries you so much Yamato, then just watch them Naruto is rather good at telling when people are lying to him. He won’t be tricked that easily for long.” Kakashi didn’t really see the girl as a threat, there was something about her that reminded him of Kushina. Perhaps it was just the red hair. 

“If you say so captain.” Yamato sighed and began to reach into his back for his sleeping bag. 

Kakashi smiled for a moment. “You didn’t pack an extra sleeping bag for Tayuya did you?” It was a low silent whisper. 

Yamato looked in his bag once again. “Actually I did, it’s right here.” 

Kakashi sighed and his shoulders slumped. "No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

“Just play along, okay?” 

Yamato looked uncertain for a long moment before he gave a small nod. “Uh okay.” 

Kakashi stood up and unrolled his own sleeping bag. “Oi Naruto, you’ll have to share your sleeping bag with Tayuya.” 

“The fuck he will!” Tayuya shouted before Naruto could respond. “Why don’t you two fucking share?!” 

Kakashi hummed for a moment in mock thought. "Well, we have our sleeping bags. Besides they're too small for two full grown men to share, but you and Naruto might be able to squeeze in his."

Tayuya screamed. “Seriously who was the dumbass that forgot to bring a fourth fucking sleeping bag! Whoever they are should sleep out in the fucking cold!” 

“That would be Naruto.” Kakashi lied smoothly, it worked as Tayuya had shut up quickly. “And it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to not get any sleep as he’s the one that needs to train hard tomorrow.” 

Tayuya glared at Naruto hard. What the fuck was going on this was some kind of joke right? First, this idiot tells her he loves her. Then he makes her start to like him by being an adorable idiot. And now she has to share a sleeping bag with him. "I bet you did this on purpose."

"I didn't know I was supposed to bring an extra sleeping bag I swear!" Naruto shouted as he began to rummage through his pack, hoping that there might magically be a spare sleeping bag in there. There was not. "You can take it Tayuya, I don't mind sleeping outside."

"Fuck that Loverboy, If you get sick because you get wet and cold that'll make training harder. And I can't play my flute with a cold." She glared at Kakashi for a moment. "Why don't you sleep out in the cold, It's not like you being sick would be a big deal."

“Of course it would, I wouldn’t be able to keep up my tremendous moral support.” Kakashi took the time to easily slide into his bag. “Welp we have a long day tomorrow, sleep well.” 

Tayuya shifted her gaze to Yamato he slowly got into his own bag, avoiding eye contact with her. Once Yamato laid down she looked at Naruto. "Keep your hands above the waist."

With a nervous chuckle, Naruto unrolled the sleeping bag. "I really don't mind, not sleeping in the sleeping bag, I almost never get sick anyways."

“Oh don’t be such a pansy, help me get in the bag and then get in it with me.” Tayuya used her arms to walk the foot or so over to Naruto. “Seriously I just said I’d fuck you and now you’re acting all nervous about sharing a sleeping bag with me.” 

Naruto looked at Tayuya like she was crazy. He was fairly certain she actually was. "Seriously are you trying to make me take another cold shower?" Still, Naruto did his job and helped Tayuya slide into the sleeping bag.

Tayuya smiled up at Naruto she adjusted herself so that there was just enough room for him to slide in beside her. “Consider blue balls your punishment for forgetting the sleeping bag.”

Naruto took off his sandals and jacket and slid down into the bag beside Tayuya with his back facing towards her. “What are blue balls?” 

Tayuya gave a small chuckle and spun so that her back was facing Naruto. “First turn around.” Naruto obeyed slowly. Slowly she maneuvered his arms so that he was holding her. Never in her life did Tayuya think that she would let anybody let alone another Ninja hold her like this. She took both of Naruto’s hands in her palms. And placed his hands on top of her breasts. “Enjoy your blue balls.” 

Tayuya closed her eyes and smiled in victory. 

And then Naruto squeezed.


	4. Chapter 4

At some point in the night, Naruto had gotten to second base. Not that he didn't start off practically on second base. But when she had fallen asleep Naruto's hands were on top of her shirt. Now his hand had crawled up into her shirt and had a generous handful. 

The bastard had stolen second base while she was asleep. 

Not that Tayuya minded too much. She liked the feeling of his rough hands on her soft flesh. It felt like a light scraping sandpaper that drifted just close enough to her skin to trigger a few touches. 

Besides, Tayuya had moved a lot as well. She had somehow twisted around in the night and now had her arms hung loosely around Naruto’s neck in some kind of lover’s embrace. If they were standing, it would be the pose of two lovers about to kiss. 

If she wanted to, it would be so easy to close the few inches between her lips and his and kiss him. And why shouldn’t she? He stole second base, it’d be that much more appropriate for her to steal it first. 

She wondered what it would be like to kiss somebody. 

With a lick of her lips, Tayuya buried her face into Naruto's neck. It was slightly moist from the early morning dew, but she didn't mind too much. This was the most comfortable she had been in a long time. Here on the ground, with nothing but a sleeping bag and an obnoxious blonde idiot. 

She smiled softly into his shoulder. She wondered how well he slept with the blue balls she’d given him. It was a joy being able to mess with somebody like that. Her hand slowly slid down his body. She traced the thick lines of his neck. He moaned. His response only spurred her on further.

The power she had over him was intoxicating.

She danced her finger down his chest. His shirt got in the way. Next time he wasn't allowed to wear one. It was crinkled about his stomach and she had free access to his bare skin. She could feel the small little blond hairs that dotted his abdomen bristle under her touch. His muscles shuddered and she felt him groan softly in his sleep. Slowly, oh so slowly, she continued to draw her fingers all the way down.

She reached his pants. He didn't wear a belt. And they were just loose enough that she could snake her hand into them. Her hand glided through his pubic hair, pulling at a few tangled ones before she found it.

He moaned louder this time. 

Her eyes went wide as she felt it. It was large. And hot. So very hot. She could barely encircle her fingers around it without squeezing. It was hard too. She felt the large veins as she trailed her way up it. It was a loose, soft motion, and up and up she went. Until she found the tip.

"Tayuya." He moaned softly.

She smiled more at the name. She didn't care too much if she had woken him or if he was just moaning her name in his sleep. Loverboy had it bad. So very bad. She circled around the tip with her fingernail, dragging it around along it's engorged tip. His body shuddered once more.

His hand squeezed her breast harder than before.

Then suddenly she dragged her hand down along it quickly. And pulled it back up. She pumped it once. Twice. Three times. And then just stopped. Slowly dragging her hand back up through his pants and along his stomach.

She mostly just wanted to see if he had morning wood.

She brought her hand up around his neck and tried once more to go to sleep.

She got about five minutes of sleeping. Then there was thunder. "Alright, you two! get up, It's time to start training again!" 

Tayuya's head shot up and glared daggers at Kakashi. He had that stupid eye smile on his face and had a pot and ladle in his hands.

"Five more minutes." Naruto half mumbled as he rolled away from the noise. And further onto Tayuya. 

Tayuya squealed at the sudden movement and the weight of Naruto largely on top of her. His hand left her breast and instead circled around her waist where he held onto her tightly with both arms. She didn’t exactly mind for a moment. Then she felt it. "Oi Loverboy, get the fuck up!"

Naruto’s eyes opened halfway. The fact that he looked completely asleep did not help Tayuya in the slightest. He propped himself up on his arms and smiled down at Tayuya. He was still dreaming. Yea, that’s right, he was having such a nice dream. Tayuya was above him and she was naked and it felt really good. Especially when she bent down and kissed him. “Tayuya.” 

A panic came over Tayuya as she watched the dopey blond idiot close his eyes and purse his lips. His head slowly began to descend towards her own face. Breast groping was one thing. Kissing her? That was another thing entirely. Her voice failed her; she couldn't think about what to say. 

Her hand knew exactly what to say, however. It slapped Naruto hard enough across the face to knock him off of her. Unfortunately, the sleeping bag had other ideas. Naruto was forced to the far edge of the sleeping bag and kept going, his bulk pulled on the other side sharply. The momentum was transferred directly to the much smaller Tayuya.

Tayuya squeaked as she was forced on top of Naruto at an angle that put her face right above his. 

Naruto smiled up at Tayuya, red handprint adorning his cheek. A lot less painful than when Sakura woke him up. “Good morning!” 

Tayuya rolled her eyes and rolled off of him. “Sup, Loverboy, have a nice dream?” 

“Yea, you were in it.” The remarkable thing was that he said that with a straight face. 

Tayuya gagged and pulled herself partway out of the sleeping bag straightening her shirt as she did. "Oh god, it's too early for that much cheese. Besides, your second head already told me as much." 

“What?” Naruto looked at Tayuya like she had a second head. She pointed and he followed her finger to the lovely little tent he was pitching. “Oh uh.. sorry.” 

“You two sleep well?” Kakashi interjected with that same stupid smile on his… eye. Tayuya didn’t trust him in the slightest. 

Tayuya returned the smile with extra snark. She was about to retort but then something caught her eye. Yamato was packing his own sleeping bag. And on the ground was another identical sleeping bag. It wasn’t Kakashi’s as the man had yet to pack his up.

“Can’t get a lady in your own bed so you have to live it through your student?”

Kakashi felt a chill crawl up his spine at the icy tone. But he refused to let it show. "Well, you seemed to enjoy yourself with it." 

Tayuya let it slide; if they stayed out here tonight, she might insist on sharing a sleeping bag with Naruto again. 

 

XXXX

Naruto simply sighed as he heard another explosion and felt the rush of the memories of two more clones. They had failed again. And again. And again. Trying to combine the Rasengan with wind chakra was a lot harder than he thought it would be.

It was starting to get annoying. He could feel the Kyuubi feeding him anger to weaken the seal. “AGH!” 

A soothing melody washed over him. Tayuya’s music silenced the Kyuubi’s rage like the ocean would squelch an ember. He spared her a look for a moment. She was drenched in sweat and looked ready to pass out. Yamato wasn’t faring much better either. 

Kakashi had vanished just a few minutes prior. Likely to fight the ninja that were the reason for Asuma's death. Akatsuki. His jaw clenched as he focused once more on the Rasengan. He should be out there fighting. It was his battle; Akatsuki were after him! 

He felt it again. The Kyuubi's chakra. The unstable Rasengan. It exploded. 

And so did he.

XXXX

Tayuya sighed into her flute as she watched another group of clones vanish. She had thought this was an easy mission until they had started this training. She barely understood what was going on. Just that Naruto was incredibly pissy and the Kyuubi wasn't helping that at all. 

What's worse is that she was running on empty. The flute had drained all that it could to put the Kyuubi at rest. The more uneasy the Kyuubi the more chakra it took. "So what the fuck is he trying to do?" 

Yamato sighed at that question it was the third time she asked it and each time it broke his concentration. He was beginning to hate Kakashi for leaving to go back up Shikamaru’s group. Maybe he wanted to go fight the deadly ninja? “He’s trying to complete the Rasengan.” 

Tayuya was fairly certain that she hated Yamato. Sure she had asked the same question three times in a row. But that doesn't mean he needed to give her the same answer three times in a row. It was annoying. She sighed and stared at the mass of Naruto out in the field. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what exactly they were trying to do. "Complete the Rasengan, huh. Oi dip-shit, get over here!" 

The nearest duo of Naruto sprinted over to her like a love sick puppy. They stopped just short and obediently waited for their orders. "What's up, Tayuya?" 

"Show me the Rasengan thing again." Tayuya watched intently as Naruto began to perform the Jutsu, he pushed chakra out from his hand while clone did something with its hands. "Why do you need a clone? Didn't Cyclops-sensei do it with one hand?" 

The Naruto holding the Rasengan shrugged towards his partner. Who shrugged back and then looked down at Tayuya. “I’ve always done it that way. My chakra control is too bad to do it with one hand.”

Tayuya sighed and examined the spinning sphere. She was hoping she'd find something obvious that Naruto was missing and speed this whole thing along. She knew it was silly, it often took years to make a Jutsu from scratch. And this was advanced stuff. But given Naruto's recent progress, she had hoped that this training would only take a few hours as well. She wanted her legs back. 

"So you needed to divide the workload so you could do the Jutsu," Tayuya muttered as she stared at the Jutsu. It was so unique. Even now she could see the power and potential in the Jutsu. And it wasn't even complete. 

Something clicked in Naruto, however. Divide the workload! He could do that! He just needed another clone. "Tayuya you're a genius!" 

Tayuya waved him off. “Tell me something I don’t know.” She then looked up at the clones with their shit eating grins. “Wait, what did I do?” 

It only concerned her further as the clones dispelled themselves. The remainder of the clones also dispelled themselves. And original Naruto stood there giving her a thumbs up. Two Shadow clones appeared. 

And everything went smoothly. The Rasengan formed in his hand and then widened, elongating as the wind swirled around it. The Jutsu was complete. "Captain Yamato! Let's go back Kakashi-sensei up!" 

"Right!" Yamato shouted rather glad that Naruto had finally finished his Jutsu. Containing the Kyuubi was not his favorite thing to do. 

Tayuya looked around the ruined field in confusion as the two left her there. Her back was to the waterfall.. which meant Konoha was what way? “Are you two fuckers just going to leave me here?!” 

XXXX

Hospitals sucked. They were far too cold; far too quiet and the entire place felt like death. Already Tayuya missed being outside. At least the bed was the most comfortable one she’d ever been on. It was larger than the sleeping bag she shared with Naruto too. She wondered if it would be more or less comfortable with Naruto in the bed with her. 

That thought didn’t quite sit well with Tayuya. She knew she was impatient, but it somewhat scared her how much that blond idiot was on her mind. Her hands twisted around her flute and a small smile began to form. “Holy shit, barely out of prison for three days and you fall for the first bastard to smile at you.” 

"Care to explain?" Despite the silence of the hospital, Tayuya somehow didn't hear Tsunade approach and nearly jumped out of her skin. 

Tayuya’s head snapped towards the door where Tsunade stood a deep scowl on her face. “Explain what?” 

Heels clicked loudly against the hard, smooth floors of the hospital. Tsunade stopped in front of Tayuya’s bed and grabbed a chart; a cluster of medical statistics that had put there an hour or so ago. Without looking up from the charts, Tsunade spoke again. “Why you were found rolling away from the village.” 

"It wasn't my fault okay!" Tayuya exclaimed loudly. "I don't know this area, and last I checked I wasn't fucking allowed outside of Konoha, so I tried to find my way back here for two hours! First, the fucking Cyclops left us to go have a circle jerk with his buddies, then after Loverboy finished the Jutsu, you’re fucking welcome by the way, he and vanilla bean decided to go join cyclops in his fucking circle jerk!" 

Tayuya took a deep breath and sighed. It felt good to let it all out to something besides trees to hear her rant. She felt a sudden chill run up her spine when she remembered who exactly she just yelled at. “I uhh...”

“If you ever swear at me like that again, I’ll break your legs.” Tsunade didn’t even look up from the chart as she spoke. 

"Yes, ma'am." In her own way, Tsunade was as terrifying as Orochimaru ever was. 

Tsunade looked up from the chart and smiled. “Believe it or not I’m rather happy your mission was a success. According to Sai, Naruto came to your defense against Sakura.” 

"Yea, that kind of happened." Tayuya gave a small shrug; she didn't really understand the whole situation. It didn't seem like something worth reporting to the Hokage. Hopefully, Cyclops would keep his mouth shut about forcing them to share a sleeping bag. 

“He also reported that you called Naruto ‘Loverboy’. Care to explain?” 

Casper, the fucking snitch! The next time she saw that walking sperm bank she was going to skin his translucent hide and make it into a lovely throw rug. It wasn't that she was afraid of people knowing. It was just that Casper had told the scariest of all mama bears on her. "You know how Shadow Clones return the memories to the user?" 

Tsunade sighed and nodded. "Yes, that was what his training was based around." 

"Yea well, apparently they also transfer emotions and feelings kind of," Tayuya twisted her flute around in her hands as she tried to explain it. 

Tsunade smacked her forehead hard enough to make a sharp noise. “Don’t tell me that idiot fell in love with you because of the clones.” Seriously, was being attracted to redheads a genetic thing for Naruto? First Sakura and now Tayuya. 

“His first words to me yesterday were, “I love you,” but he insists he didn’t mean to say that.” Tayuya was caught off guard when the Hokage let out a bark of laughter. 

"That Naruto has no tact." Tsunade sighed and her shoulders dropped slightly. She gave Tayuya a soft smile. In all honesty, this was mostly her fault for listening to Yamato in the first place. "So, what are you going to do about it?" 

Tayuya almost wished that Tsunade would just stay as the cold hard bitch she was first introduced to. Not this whole ‘I want what’s best for my grandson’ routine she seemed to be pulling. She hated this duplicity. She had enough of that shit with Kabuto and Orochimaru. 

Naruto was different, though. He wore his emotions on his sleeve. There was no hidden layer in his words, no hidden meaning. He just said what he felt without thinking. Which was how they had got to their current situation. Tayuya looked at Tsunade and gave a nasal sigh. "He owes me dinner so... Wait, why the hell does it matter anyway? I'm more or less free to do what I want now aren't I?" 

"If it was that simple I wouldn’t say anything." Tsunade turned to look out of the window. "But Naruto is a special kid, and for more than just the Kyuubi. He wants to become Hokage and has the stubbornness to do just that." 

"And it wouldn't look good if he was dating somebody responsible for one of his predecessor's death." Tayuya finished for Tsunade. "Look, I want to go where it would go with him, and I don't really give a shit about what other people think." 

“It doesn’t matter what you think. This is about Naruto.” Tsunade’s interruption shut Tayuya up quickly. “Look I’m not going to try and fight Naruto on this. Last time I fought with him about something, I ended up becoming Hokage.”

Tayuya raised an eyebrow, that sounded a bit unusual. “So what are you saying granny?” 

"Don't you start with that!" Tsunade moaned and looked back at Tayuya. The intimidating presence she had when she was the Hokage had long faded. She was just Tsunade now, a woman in desperate need for a drink. "I'm trying to say that after you get your legs back, I will try to offer you a chance to redeem yourself, prove you are loyal to Konoha." 

Tayuya rolled her eyes. “Really? You’re going to offer me a chance to prove my loyalty to Konoha? Me, somebody that was being dished a life sentence no less than three days ago?” 

"It's an option alright," Tsunade turned away from the window sharply. She had wasted too much time here. Still, she wasn't quite certain what to make of Tayuya. She dropped the chart on to Tayuya's lap and headed towards the door. "Your surgery is tomorrow, We're expecting a few injured shinobi today, Naruto included. But I had them do some blood work on you." 

Tayuya waited for Tsunade to shut the door before she grabbed the chart. It was a few forms filled with a bunch of medical jargon she didn’t understand as well as a bunch of notes. Then she found what she had been looking for.

Her mouth went dry as she read the line. She had never had a family. She didn’t even know who her parents were or where she came from for that matter. But this chart somehow did. 

Nearest living relative: Tsunade Senju; cousin, Common ancestors: Mito Uzumaki, Hashirama Senju. 

"This is some kind of joke right?" Tayuya called out. She expected to see Orochimaru appear as she finally broke out of some weird experimental Jutsu. This just couldn't be real. It wasn't possible. How the fuck could she be related to the first fucking Hokage, of all people! 

That made her basically Konoha royalty right? Being directly related to the first Hokage like that. Did Orochimaru know? There was just no way this could be true. If it was, how did she end up an orphan on the eastern coast of fire country? 

She read it again. 

Nearest living relative: Tsunade Senju; cousin, Common ancestors: Mito Uzumaki, Hashirama Senju. 

She had to blink slowly, her right eye felt just the slightest bit faster than her left and she couldn't focus on anything. Her head was spinning. She couldn't make sense of this. Of anything. With shaking hands, she put down the chart and reached for the only thing that made any sense right now. 

Her flute. Wait, her ancestor's flute. She was directly related to the woman who had used this flute to subdue and seal the Kyuubi. 

She ignored those thoughts and allowed the music to take her. She gripped the instrument lightly and closed her eyes. The melody poured out from her soul; it sounded like the flute itself was drunk, like the notes were played sideways, crooked; somehow arranging itself back into its own song that continued to twist and turn with each passing moment. 

No note was ever played the same, no tune was carried in the same way. The song exploded out of her. It was life. All of its ups and downs. All of its love, its hate, its uncertainty. 

Everything.

XXXX

He woke to the soft sounds of Tayuya’s music. His arm felt heavy. It felt like it was on fire. It was dark outside. Oh, that's right. Sakura had to put him under so she could start repairing his arm. At least he still beat Kakuzu. Still, his Jutsu nearly tore his arm off when he used it. 

Naruto leapt from his bed thoughtlessly. Tayuya’s flute was like a lighthouse light to him. It’s low, soothing tone went straight to him and nobody else. As he opened his door, he briefly wondered what Sakura would do in the morning if he wasn’t in his assigned bed. 

He followed the music through the hospital, the night staff were distracted by something. A genjutsu from Tayuya maybe? He went up the flight of stairs and around the corner to find her room. The music stopped without warning, and Naruto found himself able to think freely once more. 

Man, it sucked to suck at genjutsu. 

With a smile, Naruto opened the door and entered Tayuya's room. Her light was off but the full moon outside her window illuminated her room in its soft gray light. "Did you really cast a genjutsu just to get me to come to your room?" 

Tayuya shrugged, a motion that sent her into a small roll, It looked recently washed. With her finger, she pointed towards the empty bucket and sponge near her nightstand. "You missed out, an hour or two ago and you could have given me a nice sponge bath." 

Naruto stepped into the room with a smile on his face. He shut the door tight behind him. “Why would I want to do that?” 

“I’d be naked.” 

That was actually a very good reason. There was a small pause as he sorted out his thoughts. “I’ll be there for the next one.” 

Tayuya snorted and flopped down onto the pillow of her bed. "Nah, I kind of like doing it myself." 

“So, why’d you call me here?” Naruto asked as he closed the gap to Tayuya’s bedside. The moonlight only made her pale skin seem all the more beautiful and pristine, and brought out the rich red of her hair. He wanted to touch her. 

Tayuya just smiled and shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep, and you’re the only person around here I can talk to.” 

Naruto's smile only grew wider and he sat down on the edge of her bed. "Well, I here I am." 

With a deep sigh, Tayuya fiddled with her flute for a moment. "Apparently, the first Hokage is like my great grandfather or something." 

That took a moment for Naruto to process. “Wait really? That’s great ya know! It makes you like a princess, like Granny!” 

“You call me princess and I’ll make you wear a dress.” Tayuya glared at Naruto with a smile on his face. It was a dare; a challenge. 

Naruto gave a soft laugh, that look on Tayuya's face was just too cute. "And how will you do that, Princess?" 

She wagged her flute at him with a toothy grin on her face. "I'll put you under a genjutsu to make you think you're wearing your normal clothes. Probably wouldn't even be that hard if I start it before you wake up." 

For a while, the two just sat there smiling at each other. It was a smooth comfortable silence. 

“So that’s what kept you up?” Naruto asked with a yawn. There must still be some drugs in his system as he was rather drowsy. 

Tayuya sighed and her smile faded. That wasn’t all, she didn’t want to sleep alone in a closed room again. She wanted somebody there. Anybody. When she slept in the hallway two nights ago there was an Anbu there, and last night she had Naruto right there with her. 

She didn't want to be alone again. It reminded her of her box. "Shit, Just imagine suddenly finding out that you're related to a fucking Hokage. I just. It's a lot to take in you know?" 

Naruto reached out and touched Tayuya’s hair, giving it a long slow pet. “Did you find out anything about your parents?” 

Tayuya snorted and swatted his hand away. “No, my apparent cousin walks in, looks at the chart, hands it to me and says ‘your surgery is tomorrow, have fun with all this sudden emotional baggage I just dumped on you’.” 

“Wait, cousin?” Naruto asked in confusion. 

"Yea, Chesty McCow-Tits, the Hokage is my closest living relative! Yay me! Related to three fucking Hokage and I helped kill one!" Tayuya flailed her arms wide and spoke in a loud whisper. 

"Wait, who's the other Hokage you're related to?" 

Tayuya's mouth dropped and she looked at Naruto like he grew a third head. "Holy shit Loverboy, do you really not know that the second Hokage was the first Hokage's brother?" 

Naruto’s head shrunk down into his shoulders as he winced. “Yea, I’m not really good at history.” 

Tayuya yawned into a smile. She was getting sleepy. Placing both hands on the mattress she scooted over and opened up the covers for Naruto. “Want to stay here with me tonight?” 

She hated the way it sounded like she was begging him. Perhaps she could have told him instead of giving him the option. What if he said no? What would that mean? Where did these sudden fears come from? 

"I was about to ask if I could," Naruto said with a large smile. He began to move into Tayuya's bed. 

But her hand stopped him. “Hold on there are no shirts allowed on this bed.”

Naruto raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger at Tayuya’s shirt. “Does that rule apply to you?” 

His answer was Tayuya’s shirt hitting him in the face.


	5. Chapter 5

The hospital was never a place that Naruto would say he enjoyed waking up at. The rooms were cold, the air was stale, and the food was god awful. Then there were the horrible needles. He hated those more than anything. 

But for once, Naruto was happy to wake up in the hospital. He felt her first; his right hand on the subtle curve of her hip, the tips of his fingers slid underneath her pants. She was nuzzled into his neck while her hands clutched the cast on his left hand on his chest.

Tayuya was absolutely beautiful. There was a part of him that thought it was just some dream, that the last three days weren’t real. Even now, as he physically felt her in his arms, it felt so surreal. 

She moaned when he dragged his fingers up along her slender waist. He liked the way she purred at his touch. Two days ago when he said he loved her, he said it without thinking. The same could be said for now. The affection that came from his clones now paled to the affection that had grown just by talking with Tayuya. 

He felt a sudden upward curve of soft flesh and couldn’t help but smile a little bit wider. He dragged his fingers along the curvature. It was slick and oh so slightly sweaty. They were perfect handful that were capped with lovely pink tips. He wondered if he had permission to grab them once again. He liked the way the felt it was so soothing, just the raw texture of her smooth flesh, the weight in his hand, the intimacy. 

Boobs are awesome. 

“Just fucking grab them Loverboy...” Tayuya mumbled as she buried her head further into his shoulder. Her hot breath sent a chill down his spine. She had woken up when his hand first started moving and just wanted to enjoy the feeling of him exploring her. After years of isolation the touch of another felt like heaven.

Naruto did not need to be told twice. His hand wasted no time in moving up the smallest amount and sinking into her soft flesh. With a subtle squeeze, he marveled at their elasticity when it returned to its resting shape. He twisted his head and buried it into the tangled mess of red locks that were like a flame frozen in time. He found the top of her head and gave it a small kiss. “Good morning Princes-hey!”

Tayuya chomped down hard as soon as she heard that. Her teeth sank into Naruto’s slightly salty neck. His muscles were firm and shook under her bite. She didn’t know why but she started to suck on Naruto’s flesh for a moment and licked the chunk inside her mouth. She separated and looked at her handiwork. Already it was a different color from his skin and lined with the indentations of her teeth. 

“I told you not to call me Princess.” Tayuya brushed the hair from her eyes and smiled up at Naruto. He had a pained look on his face with some kind of stupid smile. Almost like he… Tayuya’s eyes went wide as she looked down at the covers to see the tent Naruto was pitching. With an open mouth smile she looked back up at him. “Don’t tell me you liked it?” 

“I what no!” Naruto desperately tried to avoid Tayuya’s gaze. Her eyes were laughing at him. He gulped when he finally locked eyes with her. “Maybe... is that a bad thing..?” 

The sound of her laughter reverberated through his whole body. It sounded like a cackling demon trying to be an angel. Tayuya’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly and a smile spread across her face. “If you’re trying to get with me, it’s a good thing.”

Tayuya didn’t know what she was thinking or what she was doing. Her head began to somehow move on it’s own accord. Her lips on a collision course with his. She had marked him, that hickey she had put on his neck made him hers and hers alone. All she needed to do to seal the deal was kiss him. If she kissed him he’d never leave. 

She rather liked that idea. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. 

In the brief time between Tayuya’s words and the way she began to move towards him, Naruto felt his heart drop into his stomach as imagery from when Sakura did the same thing years ago, and then back up into his throat when he returned to the present. With a gulp, his heart returned back to its normal position. Though it was way too early in the morning for it to be beating this fast.

He leaned forward, unable to close his eyes for even a second. He wanted to see his first time. 

Inches turned to centimeters. 

The distance was almost non existent as he felt the ghost of her lips on his. They tingled slightly.

The door suddenly slid open and there was a squeal. Both heads snapped around to see a pink faced Shizune stand there, completely mortified.

Shizune’s eyes bolted to Naruto’s bare chest, to Tayuya’s exposed breasts, to the shirts haphazardly crumpled on the ground. “I um.. oh my! I’m so sorry! I err.. what? That is.. I.. you shouldn’t be.. I should have.. Maybe.. Oh.” 

Naruto brought up his bandaged hand and waved it at Shizune. He was rather disappointed she couldn’t have stopped to tie her sandals or something. “Hey Shizune.” 

Shizune’s face slowly began to turn bright red as she looked at the two shirtless teens. They were so close! It was indecent! They were in the hospital in all her years she had never walked in on somebody in the act. “You shouldn’t do that in the hospital!” 

“Aren’t nurses supposed to knock anyways?” Tayuya twisted herself so that her exposed chest directly faced Shizune. Naruto’s hand refused to give up it’s spot. Tayuya watched as the woman turned away sharply her face beat red. She was almost acting like Naruto when she first showed him her breasts. “Wait, what’s the big deal anyways we didn’t actually have sex, I want my legs for that.” 

Shizune puffed up and attempted to block the view of Tayuya’s breasts with her clipboard while still maintaining a fleeting eye contact. It was just so unexpected. She expected the girl to be asleep! Not sleeping with Naruto! “Well, yes but I uhh.. Could you two cover up please?” 

With Naruto’s hand still on her breast, Tayuya braced herself to attempt sitting up. Holy crap, wasn’t this lady like a nurse or doctor or something? It was like she’d never seen a pair of tits before; she was that embarrassed by the intimacy. “Wait, are you a virgin?” 

Those words reduced Shizune to a blubbering twelve year old as she flailed her arms around frantically with her eyes closed shut. “I.. what? What does that have to do with anything?!” 

“What the hell is wrong with this village?” It didn’t make any sense to Tayuya. Literally every adult she met had been a virgin, the only one that looked like he got any action was Casper because it was so easy to picture him taking it up the up. “Naruto, is Cyclops-sensei around her age?” 

Naruto blinked at the sudden question. “Uhh I think so, I don’t really know how old Kakashi-sensei and Shizune are.” 

“How do you not know your own sensei’s age?” Tayuya turned away from the incredibly flustered shizune. 

“I never, asked, I don’t even know how old Granny is. Just that she’s old.” Naruto admitted he knew that tsunade was as old as Jiraiya and Jiraiya was like over fifty. He might have actually been told and forgot. Then it hit him. “Wait, how old are you?”

The question taught Tayuya off guard for a second. She had to mentally add three to her age for how long she was in the prison. “I don’t like seventeen or something, you?”

“I turn sixteen in october!” Naruto proclaimed loudly. “But wait why’d you want to know Kakashi’s age?” 

Tayuya shrugged. “I don’t know, I just know that they both look like they need to have sex before they die. So I don’t know push them into each other.” It had seemed like a great idea until she came to the conclusion that it wasn’t any of her business. 

“Please, get dressed!” Shizune squealed and shut the door. “I’ll be back in five minutes!” 

The second that the door shut, a smile crept onto Naruto’s face. He grabbed Tayuya’s chin to turn her towards him. He leaned forward, staring into her brown eyes that held so much fire in them. 

He was stopped short as Tayuya placed her finger over his mouth. “What do you think you’re doing, Loverboy?” 

Naruto gently pressed his face further into Tayuya’s finger and her smile grew wider. He was confused; they were about to kiss before Shizune interrupted them, how would it be different now? “Kiss you?” 

Tayuya’s smile shifted into a smirk. She had no reason to deny him outside of the simple pleasure in it. “Sorry, you missed your chance.”

“But Shizune barged in and we were about to anyway!” Naruto whined flailing his cast-bound arm around. His right hand had yet to leave her chest. 

“Kiss faster next time!” Tayuya smiled and pulled the cover off of them as best she could. She looked down at her broken and useless legs. They were thin, and gaunt from disuse. She wanted to feel the grass beneath her feet; to dip them into a cold stream and feel her muscles burn from a good workout. 

She smiled at Naruto and pictured him rubbing her feet. He could easily rub both with his shadow clones. Come to think of it, her back could use a good rub. Naturally he’d also have a clone to rub her ass. Though maybe that last one wouldn’t be a clone. Naruto was like the swiss army knife of boy toys. “Alright, now get your ass out of bed and hand me my shirt!” 

Naruto grumbled and got out of Tayuya’s bed. He slowly handed Tayuya her shirt to memorize the detail of her chest one more time. It was hard to be upset. He did get to grab a boob all night. “Why did you want me out of your bed so bad?” 

Her smirk never faded as Tayuya put on her shirt. “I want my legs back, and you remember what I said when I got my legs back?” She gave Naruto a not so subtle wink. 

The gears in Naruto’s head slowly turned. He went through every memory he had of Tayuya in order to find out what she was talking about. It seemed rather… oh. It hit him like a rock. Naruto wasted no time in putting on his T-shirt. “I’ll go get Shizune!” 

The last thing Naruto heard as he ran out the door was Tayuya’s cackle of laughter. 

XXXX

Tayuya had been in the operation room for nearly an hour and Naruto lacked the ability to sit still. It wasn’t that he was nervous. Tsunade and Sakura were in there so Tayuya was in most capable hands in the whole world when it came to medical stuff. He was excited. 

Not because of the sex. Okay. A little bit because of the sex. 

But mostly he was just excited for Tayuya, he could feel her desire when she talked or looked at her legs. It was the same kind of excitement one got when a friend got a present and you wanted to see them open it. 

“Dickless, you should sit down before Hag comes out and hits you again,” Sai spoke up after watching Naruto for twenty minutes. 

“She hasn’t hit me today,” Naruto folded his arms in protest but stopped walking. “Why are you even here Sai?” 

Sai looked down at his sketchbook and began to draw on it once more. “I read in a book that a friend should be there when a friend is in the hospital.” 

“Thanks but I’m fine now, well mostly,” Naruto waved his bandaged hand at Sai as though to say hello. He was honestly flattered that Sai would come to the hospital for him. Especially since Naruto wouldn’t step near the hospital unless he was a patient. 

Sai looked up at Naruto and smiled innocently. “I’m not here for you.” 

“Then who the hell are you here for!” Naruto’s since of flattery was instantly swept up into an angry rage at how easily Sai said that. 

Sai twisted his note book to show Naruto the picture of Tayuya he had been drawing. “I’m here to see Rotten Tomato, I also wanted to ask her if she had any tips for giving people nicknames. Hers seem to be rather popular.” 

Naruto had to bite down the urge to tell Sai to stay the hell away from Tayuya. This was the same feeling he got whenever Sakura flaunted over Sasuke and ignored him. Jealousy. “I don’t think she gives nicknames to make friends Sai.” 

This confused Sai. “Then why would she give so many of them?” 

“I think she just likes to insult people,” Tayuya seemed to just enjoy spewing profanities, it was just a part of who she was. Naruto didn’t really mind it that much, he thought it was… adorable wasn’t the right word, it was just a part of what made Tayuya Tayuya.

“I see.” Sai looked back down towards his sketch pad and continued his sketch. 

Silence fell over the two and after a minute, Naruto resumed his pacing. 

At long last, the doors to the room opened up and Tsunade walked out with a smile on her face. “Alright brat, get in here.” 

Naruto wasted no time in entering the room. Tayuya laid sat upright on the bed her legs dangling off its side. She had the biggest smile on her face as she kicked them slowly. Shizune kneeled in front of her and was examining Tayuya’s legs carefully. 

Sakura stood off to the corner, cleaning up some medical junk and putting various things away. 

“So, can I try standing Doc?” Tayuya bit her bottom lip in excitement. For three long years she had missed being able to stand. It didn’t matter if it would be a while before she could do things like walking. 

Once again, Shizune went over Tayuya’s legs with a pale green glow on her hands. Satisfied, she nodded up to Tayuya. “Not on your own, but with some assistance certainly.”

“Hey lover boy, get over here and help me stand!” She didn’t need to actually call him over; he was already making his way towards her. Still her words made him pick up his pace that little bit. 

Sakura heard the nickname and her scowl deepened. She had protested healing Tayuya’s legs, but in the end, Tsunade had told her that this surgery was going to be done with or without her. She agreed to do it only because of Tsunade. 

She turned to glare at Tayuya as Naruto helped the girl slowly stand up for the first time. It wasn’t fair. First Tayuya stole Sasuke away, and now she’s going to steal Naruto away from her too. Her Team Seven — her family — was being broken apart by this stupid whore. The instrument Sakura had in her hand was now warped beyond recognition. 

Tayuya gasped in delight when her bare foot hit the cold ground. Then the other one. She was standing. Mostly, sure most of her weight was being supported by Naruto, but both of her feet were on the ground. She had to resist the urge to squeal in delight. She had to look up at Naruto. Wait, why was he so tall? “Fuck, you’re tall!” 

Tayuya took her first look around the room with Naruto's support. He was taller than her. A good four inches taller. Shizune was taller than that. Pinkie was just barely shorter than Naruto. Even Chesty McTits who was weighed down by her mighty udders was taller than her! "Why the hell did nobody tell me I was short!"

“You’re short.” Naruto chuckled at her side. He relished the squinting glare and pout Tayuya gave him. He considered it good payment for denying him that kiss earlier. There was something about the way her nose crinkled that just made her look so cute. 

They were flirting. Actually flirting. Naruto was literally flirting with their enemy! Sakura couldn’t take it anymore, she had to do something and separate Naruto from Tayuya before she lost him too. She tried her best to appear calm and not stomp her feet when she walked over to Naruto. “Hey Naruto, would you like to go out for ramen?” 

“Yea! That sounds great, what do you think Tayuya? I do owe you food after all,” Naruto’s eagerness grew ten fold at the idea of eating ramen, it had been like five days since he’d had it. That was almost a week! Oh, and now he could show Tayuya the glory of ramen!

“Naruto, I meant as a date,” Sakura said firmly. Her fists were balled into fists at her sides and she was having a hard time not shaking. 

Shizune took that as her cue to leave and promptly exited the room. She did not want to be present for the drama that was about to take place. 

The ability to respond was lost to Naruto as he desperately tried to figure out what exactly was happening. Sakura, the girl he had had a crush on had just asked him out on a date. He wanted to say yes. But at the same time, he wanted to spend more time with Tayuya. He liked Tayuya, he liked her alot. “I umm.. well.. the thing is..” He muttered.

Tayuya, who Naruto was still helping up let her weight drop and she fell into Naruto’s arms and stuck her tongue out at Pinkie. She knew exactly what Pinkie was thinking. She was trying to take away Naruto from her. Unfortunately for Pinkie, Tayuya hated to lose and was not above fighting dirty. 

“It’s me or her Naruto!” Sakura shouted with finality. Her fists were clenched tight and her knuckles were white. Sakura had never wanted to punch somebody as much as she did now. Even more than when Sai insulted Sasuke. 

“The fuck kind of thing to say is that?” Tayuya shouted from her slouched position against Naruto’s chest. “Like holy fuck Pinkie, are you constantly PMSing or are you just that big of a fucking bitch.” 

“Shut up Shrimp!” Sakura shot back. Tears began to stream down Sakura’s face and she bit her lip hard enough that blood began to flow out of it. “You took away Sasuke, and now you’re trying to take Naruto away from me. I can’t. I can’t take it anymore I have to stop it!” 

“Holy fuck, you’re all kinds of selfish aren’t ya?” Tayuya snapped back. “Hell if I was Sasuke I’d leave just.” 

“Stop it!” Naruto shouted finally. he gently pushed Tayuya down to the bed and stood between the two girls. “Both of you just stop, why can’t you be friends?” 

“She’s an enemy.” Sakura said firmly. 

“I don’t get along with other bitches.” Tayuya grunted as she sat up on her own.

Naruto looked between the two girls with a pleading look. “You’re both important to me, can you please at least try to get along?”

Tayuya flopped back onto the bed and closed her eyes in frustration. It was a lot easier when it was just her and Naruto. Other people complicated things. And she never was much of a social butterfly to begin with. 

“Why is she important to you anyways, Naruto?” Sakura asked her voice was strained with anger, although her tears stopped. 

“I umm.. well.. that is..” Naruto didn’t quite know what to say to Sakura without making Sakura mad at him. Or Tayuya for that matter. What on earth was she to him?

Tayuya pointed in Naruto’s vague direction without looking at him. “Since Loverboy is shit with words, just look at the left of his neck, I did that.” 

Both Naruto and Sakura turned to examine his neck. There it was a slightly red mark with little teeth indentation around it. The two teens blushed; Sakura at the implication and Naruto at being caught. 

“Alright Pinkie, listen up!” Tayuya shouted from her prone position, it was easier to swallow her pride laying down somehow. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about Sasuke. Believe it or not, I tried to warn him. I told him the cost of Orochimaru’s power. Freedom. I’ve been a prisoner my whole life, if not to this village then to Orochimaru. Fuck. Look. What I’m trying to fucking say is that I’ve made a lot of mistakes. A fuck ton of them. So fuck it. I’m sorry. Or some shit.” 

At some point a traitorous tear slid out of her eye. She was so close to being free and able to live her life how she wanted it. Not by how she had to live it. 

The doors swung open and Tsunade walked back in.

Sakura wiped away the last few remaining tears that stained her cheeks. Tayuya had seemed so sincere. And there was the way that Naruto looked at and held Tayuya. It was how she always wanted Sasuke to look and hold her. “Fine,I’ll accept your apology shorty.”

“Ahh good, you two are friends now.” Tsunade clapped her hand happily against a clipboard she had in her hand. With a lack of grace she handed Sakura the clipboard. “Sakura, you’re going to be Tayuya’s physical therapist and caretaker.” 

Sakura examined the clipboard in bewilderment. This was probably the most responsibility Tsunade had given her at one time. Part of her filled with pride. But at the same time, she may have accepted Tayuya, but she was still unsure about the redhead. “Ehh? why me?”

“Because I trust you.” Those words would be on repeat in Sakura’s mind for the next month. Mostly whenever she wanted to murder Tayuya. 

Tayuya sat up to look her cousin in the chest. And then in the eyes. “So how long until I’m able to walk on my own?” 

“That depends on how much work you put into it.” Tsunade gave a half-hearted shrug then turned to leave. “Well, I’m done being a doctor today, you kids have fun, I have to go be the Hokage now.” 

Naruto bit his lip and looked between the two girls in anticipation. “So.. ramen?” 

XXXX

“We’re halfway there! Just let me carry you the rest of the way!” Naruto whined; Tayuya was using him as a crutch as they slowly made their way to the ramen stand. A ten minute leisurely walk had taken them forty five minutes. And they were barely halfway there!

Tayuya stopped to look up at Naruto and gave him a harsh glare. Sweat had begun to form on her brow. Her legs were on fire. Three years of disuse had left them with nearly no strength. But she had them back. They were slow, and weak, but they were hers. “I just got my legs back! I’m going to fucking use them! If you want to get your ramen right now then just fucking go, I’ll walk on my own.” 

Naruto whined in protest but remained with Tayuya. “I’m not going to abandon you.”   
“Don’t say shit like that like I’m about to fall off a fucking cliff,” Tayuya snorted and focused on walking forward once more. It felt so nice to be able to feel them again from the soft fluffy texture of her socks, to the resistance of her shorts. It was all fantastic. 

It still hurt, a lot. But it was a good hurt. 

Sakura sighed at the two. She couldn't help but feel the slightest bit jealous over the situation. She missed it when Naruto would fawn over her like that, and it hadn’t even been a week since he last tried to ask her out. Tayuya was right, she was the worst possible kind of bitch. Still she had a job to do. “Tayuya, how are your legs feelings?” 

“Like I haven’t used them in three years and everything burns!” Tayuya didn’t look at Sakura when she said that. There was a pebble on the path and she wanted to try and kick it. The motion appeared to be a bad move as not only did she miss but she over shot and it sent her off balance. She nearly made Naruto fall on top of her. “Shit — fuck!” 

“Alright, that’s enough walking for right now.” Sakura’s inner medic took over and she was at Tayuya’s side in an instant. “To be fair, you made it further than most people through sheer stubbornness.” 

Tayuya smirked at the indirect compliment. She prided herself on being stubborn, it just felt natural to her. “Alright, Loverboy, you heard Pinkie, but I swear to god, if you pick me up like a sack of potatoes or like I’m a fucking princess I’ll bust your head in.” 

Naruto wasted no time in sweeping Tayuya off her feet. He had one arm underneath her knees and one behind her shoulders. Bridal style. He smiled down at her. “But you are a Princess!” 

“I told you to stop fucking calling me that!” Tayuya bopped Naruto on the nose with her flute like he was a dog that wouldn’t sit. 

“I think it’s a fitting nickname.” Sai said as he calmly turned another page in the book he was reading. “He calls you that because you’re rude and swear a lot, which is the opposite of how a princess should act.” 

Naruto let out a soft chuckle despite his now slightly sore nose. “No I call her Princess because she’s is one.” 

Sakura raised an eyebrow at that. “What do you mean?” 

With another bop on Naruto’s nose Tayuya turned to look at Sakura. She felt more undignified being carried like this than she did in the wheelchair. But she was never going to ride in that thing again. “The Bimbo, found out that I’m related to the first hokage.”

That revelation was eye opening to Sakura. It explained why Tsunade was so willing to perform the surgery on Tayuya, they were related. “Then how come you were...” 

“I don’t know and I don’t want to talk about it!” Tayuya snapped sharply. It was pissing her off. She knew who her great fucking grandparents were, but other than that she has three fucking grandparents to choose from. 

It was the smell that hit Tayuya first. Years of having only the disgusting grey slop they called prison food, the food pills Yamato had given her, Sakura’s horrible food pill, and then the shitty cardboard imitation of a sponge that was hospital food had left her wanting. Her mouth instantly started to water at the slightly salty smell of ramen. 

She allowed Naruto to sit her down on a stool as though she was in a trance. She could practically taste it in the air, it was like an invisible fog of flavor. And it was awesome. 

“And for you?” The brown haired waitress asked her. 

Tayuya snapped out of her thought process and examined the menu. She didn’t know it all seemed like gibberish. “Uhh, I’ll have what Naruto’s having?” It was more of a question than an answer. 

Tayuya watched in eager anticipation as bowl after bowl got placed in front of Sai, then Sakura. She looked up to see Naruto with a goofy open mouth smile and a bit of drool coming out from his mouth. Her look was no more dignified than his. 

Naruto’s mouth was watering by the time he got his bowl. A miso ramen with an extra slice of pork. There was just something about this meal. It was Iruka’s favorite as well. It reminded him of every time Iruka took him here to eat. He was about to dig in when he remembered that he was right handed. And his right hand was bandaged. “Umm Tayuya, can you umm..” 

Naruto had to stop when he saw the desperate look in Tayuya’s eyes. She wanted his ramen. How could he ask her to feed him when she herself was just as hungry if not more so than he was? But at the same time. It was his ramen. With great effort Naruto pushed his bowl towards Tayuya. “Here, you have mine, but you have to help me eat afterwards.”

Tears swelled up in her eyes as she looked at the bowl of ramen before her. In that moment it felt like the nicest thing anybody has ever for her. “I’ll help you masterbate too!” 

The stall went quiet at that proclamation, for a moment the only sound was Tayuya happily slurping up the bowl Naruto had passed her. 

Flavor. Raw, pure flavor assaulted Tayuya’s mouth for the first time in years. It surpassed every other meal she had ever eaten. It was the food of real people. Not the shit they give prisoners. Not that shit that Orochimaru insisted on feeding them. It was amazing. The texture too, the way the noodles meshed with the broth to make a slightly slimy master piece that slid effortlessly down her throat. 

The pork, a tender cutlet that seemed to melt in her mouth, exploding with extra flavor that clashed against the saltiness of the broth in a brilliant way combined with several of the sweet vegetables. It was perfection in a bowl. 

In the blink of an eye Tayuya looked down to see the bowl was empty. Her stomach was still yelling at her for more. She looked up at the waitress. “Can I have another bowl!?”

“Uhh sure?” Ayame questioned. “You know I think you might have Naruto beat for fastest I’ve seen a bowl eaten.” 

Naruto’s mouth hung open in utter amazement. He had never seen another person he ramen as fast as he did. It was kind of hot, and the fact that it was Tayuya only added onto it. He had a girlfriend - kind of —- what the hell were they again? — that liked ramen as much as he did. “I think I’m in love.” 

Sakura shot noodles out of her mouth. 

“You already said that Loverboy.” Tayuya said proudly. That bowl of Ramen had hit her in just the right spot. She could feel its weight settling in her stomach. She wanted at least one more bowl. Maybe three.

The bowl got placed in front of Naruto and Tayuya upheld her part of the bargain. The goofy look on Naruto’s face as she fed him told her all she needed to know about the situation. He was loving it. 

And then something happened. A fading tingle in the back of her neck. She could feel it right where the seal was. She dropped the chopsticks and her hand flew to the seal. 

“Tayuya?” Naruto asked with a mouth full of ramen. 

Tayuya looked up in complete disbelief. “I think Orochimaru is dead.”


	6. Chapter 6

Music flowed through Tayuya. 

It was such a natural thing; the sharp tones, the soothing melodies that echoed from her flute made her feel so much better. It felt like she could walk better while playing than she could otherwise. She made another lap around the hospital. The eighth one that day, and from the looks of things she wasn’t going to be done anytime soon. 

Not that there was anything else to do; Loverboy had gone off to capture Uchiha fucking Itachi once his location was learned and Orochimaru’s death was verified. Pinkie had gone too, and left instructions of her physical therapy. Which basically was summarized as ‘walk’. 

This left her bored in a hospital filled with sick, dying people and doctors. Seriously, hospitals sucked. They were just so depressing. Which is why she’d been playing her flute around the building to make it less shit. 

Her mind wandered once more to her loverboy. Three days, and she hadn’t seen head or tails of him. It was harder to sleep at night alone in a room, but she didn’t trust anybody enough to tell them. So she just walked along and played the flute. 

Not that walking wasn't hard. She was going faster each and every day; she could keep a normal pace now. But running was another story, and sadly she'd have to wait for Pinkie to get back before she could do any kind of weight training.

Tsunade strode out from the hospital with her long quick strides, and made a bee-line towards the girl. She was performing a delicate operation and something had happened. It was just the slightest fluctuation in chakra but she felt it. “Hey, brat, get over here.” 

"What's up cousin?" Tayuya asked with a small lull in her cadence. She was still annoyed that the woman hadn't provided her any clue on who her grandparents were. Like would it be so hard to set a flunky to the cabinets? Hell, she could probably do it with a goddamn history book.

“Follow me.” Tsunade didn’t wait for Tayuya to respond and started to walk back into the building. She had a theory to test. 

Tayuya grunted, attempting to match the pace that Tsunade had set. “Is it time for my check up or something?” 

“When you play my grandmother’s flute do you feel it draining your chakra at all?” The doors flung open wide and Tsunade didn’t even look back as she spoke. She was still getting used to the fact that Mito was Tayuya’s great grandmother or something along those lines. It felt so weird to have blood family again. 

Tayuya shifted the flute from one hand to the next and caught one of the doors before it swung back onto her. She could feel its draw a lot when she first used it, and especially when she was trying to suppress the Kyuubi. "At first it was all the time, but now it's just when I want to do something with it."

“And were you doing something with it just now?” Tsunade asked and rounded a corner to another set of doors that she flung open as well. The operating room was silent and the patient was still unconscious. 

“No I wasn’t, can you and your meat bags get to the fucking point?” Tayuya snapped when she entered the room. Tsunade rounded on her and Tayuya instantly regretted her outburst. 

Once more, Tayuya hated the fact that she was so short. Everybody was taller than her or a kid. Even some of the kids were taller than her. 

Tsunade gave a low growl that turned into a sigh towards the end. “Patients have been recovering faster since you started to stay in this hospital. I think it might have something to do with that flute, so quit being a smart ass and play the flute before I play you like a flute.” 

Music began to flow out of Tayuya like water out of a fountain. It sputtered and bubbled as she went from note to note to decide what exactly to play. The rapid chirps of her music mirrored her mild state of panic. She did not want to test Tsunade’s threat. 

It slowly turned into a chaotic harmony as the acoustics of the room had the tune echoing into itself. It took Tayuya only a moment to adjust to the sound before she added in the echo to the melody. Each new sound reverberated with the last in a one-woman symphony.

Content with the music, Tsunade walked over to the patient and examined them. Their wound was closing. It was far slower than any medical jutsu, but it somehow seemed to be the bodies natural healing ability taken into overdrive.

Without a second thought, Tsunade took a scalpel from a nearby tray and sliced it slowly along the palm of her hand. Hot red blood leaked slowly out of it. And ever so slowly, the wound began to close. It wasn't fast enough to stop the bleeding immediately but the wound would likely close before the blood would coagulate.

Tsunade examined her patient once more and monitored them directly. With her medical jutsu, she was able to determine that even their vitals were improving. She looked towards Tayuya and smiled. "Are you certain you're not putting any chakra into that?"

Tayuya stopped playing and shrugged. She had forgotten to pay attention to that; if anything, she felt better after having played her flute. Almost like she had extra energy. “I don’t think so, why? What happened?” 

Tsunade walked over to Tayuya and moved to touch Mito’s flute. The flute thrummed and the seals etched into it flared too, and just as they did, it burned at the touch. Tsunade hissed and drew her hand away. “I think that flute can do more than just soothe the Kyuubi.” 

Tayuya looked at her flute in curiosity, she hadn't really thought much about it. As soon as it fell into her hands it had become her flute. She could cast Genjutsu out of it easily enough, though it manifested differently than before and when she cast a wind Jutsu out of it, it was more powerful as well despite her being three years out of practice. "What do you think it can do?"

“That’s for you to find out, I suppose.” Tsunade shrugged and went back to her procedure. “Oh, and come by my office in an hour or so.” 

XXXX

"Whoever the fuck designed this place is a jackass!" Stairs. Stairs sucked. She could barely lift her leg high enough to clear a single step and it made her muscles scream in terror. She knew the great and powerful Hokage could hear her, hell, those giant udders probably caught sound better than her ears did.

Tayuya braced against the wall and simply trudged along. A normal person would have given up after the first flight. But Tayuya’s stubbornness streak ran deep into her being. She hated losing and she wasn’t about to lose to her legs anytime soon. With another groan of pain Tayuya ascended the step. 

Only five more to go. 

“Man, do you have to be so loud?” Tayuya’s eyes snapped upwards to the tall twiggy man that yawned that out like she had just woken up him from his afternoon nap. She recognized the lazy tone of the voice that sounded like it was almost too much effort to breath. 

"You," Tayuya growled. She took another step and another. Her muscles screamed in pain but her anger screamed back louder. This was the mother fucker that took her legs in the first place.

Shikamaru took a long hard look at Tayuya and lit his cigarette. “Who let you out of jail?” 

Tayuya smiled and took another step. Why the fuck did this fuck have to grow so god damn tall, It was going to be difficult to kick his ass. She’d have to push him down the stairs first so that she could just stomp on it. “Chesty-McCow-Tits, now hold the fuck still so I can kick your ass.” 

“Nah.” Shikamaru shrugged and simply began to walk past Tayuya on the stairs. He beat this woman once, and she was out of the realm of his problem. 

"Hey wait! You bastard!" Tayuya flailed when Shikamaru walked past her. In a failed attempt to kick him the ass she swung her leg wide. With her balance caught off guard Tayuya fell backward, her ass landing on the final step up.

Shikamaru sighed. If his mother found out that he didn’t help an injured girl up, she’d yell at him. In a motion that was one drawn out sigh, Shikamaru turned to offer Tayuya a hand up. “Troublesome women, come find me when you can walk up stairs without falling over, I’ll play you in a game of Shogi.” 

Tayuya was torn between taking the hand and spitting in the bastard’s face. The pain in her legs forced her to choose the former. It was embarrassing how easily he picked her up with one arm. Why the fuck was she so small? “What about your girlfriend? I got a bone to pick with her too.” 

“Temari? She’s not my girlfriend.” He couldn’t hide the blush that appeared on his face well enough for Tayuya not to notice. 

"Oh whatever Slim Shady, you nearly came in your pants when she showed up to save you. That or you pissed yourself." Tayuya smiled in victory when Shikamaru rolled his eyes and walked away. A verbal ass kicking would do for now.

Now all she had to do was learn to play Shogi and beat the bastard at that. 

After a few more steps, Tayuya found herself in front of the door to the Hokage’s office. She wanted to kick it down, she wanted to kick every door down. Mostly she just wanted to kick, but a large part of her just hated doors at this point. She hated being inside in general. 

Tayuya blew the hair out of her face and pushed the door open. It creaked loudly for a second before it eased into the room. Tsunade sat behind a desk glaring at several stacks of papers like she could scare them off. "You wanted to see me?"

Tsunade’s glare softened for a moment before she smiled at Tayuya. “I had some genin do a bit of digging, and I found what I could about who your grandfather was.” 

Uncertainty filled Tayuya at that. She was making progress on a question that she had never bothered to ask and never wanted the answer to. Who her family was and why she was alone. In a way, it scared her. It was still weird to consider Tsunade her cousin, even weirder to consider that she was related to the first Hokage.

"His name was Daikon Senju, my uncle and the only one of my grandfather's sons to not die during the Second Shinobi War. Before the war broke out, he went to the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool." Tsunade grabbed a folder that looked to have nearly nothing inside of it. "Sadly, after that, we know next to nothing; any records of him or his family were lost to us when the Uzu was lost."

With a shaky hand Tayuya took the file. It was as light as it looked but, was surprisingly heavy. A part of her past was inside that folder, did she even want to know, no not really. There was one pressing matter she wanted to address. “What about Naruto? There’s not some chance I’m going to end up fucking my brother is there.” 

Tsunade choked on her spit at Tayuya’s brashness. In an odd way she was happy for them. But mostly she was suspicious of Tayuya’s motives. “I shouldn’t be shocked by that statement after you nearly gave Shizune a heart attack, but no, the Uzumaki was a big clan. Naruto’s no more related to me than he is to you.” 

A wave of relief washed over Tayuya at that knowledge. Adding Incest to her list of sins was not something she wanted to do. "So who in the fuck were his parents then?"

“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me!” Tsunade slammed hands down on the desk making the room jump. 

The door opened and in walked Jiraiya, a full head higher than either of the two girls. He barely spared Tayuya a single glance. “Hey Tsunade, want to go get a drink?” 

"You idiot, I'm the Hokage; I have ninja on missions, there's no way I can go out and get a drink right now!"

Tayuya stared blankly at Tsunade while the woman walked around the desk to get her overcoat. "You say that, but why are you getting ready to leave?"

Jiraiya laughed loudly and walked over to Tayuya and ruffled her hair as though she was a child. “What do you say you join us Red? I’ve got no problems drinking with another pretty lady.” 

"I'm not old enough you perverted fuck, and If I'm going to get drunk it's not going to be with two old shits like you," Tayuya growled and slapped away Jiraiya's arm. These two did not seem like fun drinking buddies; it'd probably be the old person depressing drunk, if she wanted to get drunk she'd do it with somebody fun, like Naruto.

Tsunade rolled her eyes and made for the door. "Jiraiya, stop flirting with your student's girlfriend. Again."

Jiraiya's eyes lit up at that. “Oh, so you’re the Tayuya that wormed her way into Naruto’s heart, he couldn’t stop talking about you when I last saw him. Something about being incredibly hot and amazing with the flute.” 

Despite herself, a blush formed on Tayuya's face. "Yea well whatever, don't expect me to return the favor, Loverboy is dumber than a rock!"

Jiraiya gave a hearty laugh and gave and grabbed Tayuya by both shoulders. He held a steady gaze for a moment. He knew about her past and who she was, but Naruto trusted her, and he owed the brat that much at least. “Take good care of him will ya?” 

Tayuya was left to wonder why those words sounded like a final request. 

XXXX

Daikon Senju. 

Tayuya read the file name for the umpteenth time. She’d had the file for five days, and all she had done was glare at the name. Part of her knew she was being silly; it was highly unlikely that her grandfather would even be that big of a deal, and it probably wasn’t his fault that she had grown up an orphan and ended up in Orochimaru’s control. 

Her hand went to the seal; it was odd Orochimaru was dead. He was such an overwhelming force in her life, always there, watching, judging. Progress and strength were everything to him, if you didn't advance if you weren't strong you were left behind. And now, just like that, he was gone.

Mostly. 

She could still feel part of his taint stained on her. No amount of scrubbing would remove that mark from her life. 

Daikon Senju. The name represented what Tayuya hated. She hated the thought of “What if?” It made her think about what her life could have been like if she had been born and raised in Konoha. She’d have met Naruto sooner, she wouldn’t have the curse mark. Everything would be so perfect. 

And it pissed her the fuck off. 

She preferred the here and the now. Worrying about what could have been was for the dead.

With a muffled scream Tayuya grabbed her flute and headed out. Naruto had returned yesterday, and she felt like eating dick for lunch. 

XXXX

Walking up stairs was no longer a problem. When she found out that playing her flute somehow heightened her recovery rate Tayuya doubled her playtime. She still couldn’t run very far and she could barely carry more than an extra thirty pounds. But now that Pinkie was back Tayuya was cleared for weight training she aimed to be shinobi ready as soon as possible. 

Naruto's apartment stuck out like a sore thumb like it was some kind of welt growing out of the top of another building. It was all on its own and looked like crap. Tayuya liked it. With a loud obnoxious knock, Tayuya pounded on Naruto's door. "Hey Loverboy, open the fuck up!"

“Tayuya!” Naruto’s voice was followed by a cacophony of crashes and bangs that sounded out of place in the home of a ninja. Even the loud obnoxious kind that wore orange. The lock turned and Naruto threw the door open. “I was going to come see you soon!”

Tayuya rolled her eyes and smiled. “Jeez, you’re like a lost dog, you act like this is the first time a girl has come to your house.” 

Naruto only smiled wider and moved to let Tayuya into his apartment. “Well it’s the first time you’ve come here, and it’s kind of a mess. But welcome to my home.” 

It was dirty; there was clothing on almost every piece of furniture and empty noodle cups littered the floor. It was a fair stretch from the emptiness of the jail, the cleanliness of the hospital, the depression of Orochimaru’s lair. It felt lived in, homey, comfortable, warm, inviting. Tayuya liked it. 

She walked in and noted a key hanging on a post near the door. She grabbed it and dangled it in front of Naruto. “Spare key?”

Naruto blinked in confusion for a second. "Uh, yea."

“My key,” Tayuya corrected and strutted further into Naruto’s apartment. There was a constant scent of mildew and ramen that fluttered about in a warm welcoming way. The entrance way tripled, giving way to an open kitchen and a dining area with a large buzzing refrigerator and an electric rice cooker. 

A lot better than the cot in Sound.

Naruto just smiled and shrugged. He was quite happy to see Tayuya again, it would be good to get his mind off of Sasuke and Itachi. He closed the slowly and followed Tayuya as she explored his apartment. “So, how are your legs?”

"Settle down Loverboy, I haven't forgotten what I said." Tayuya smiled and she opened the door to Naruto's bathroom. It was oddly clean, save a few pieces of clothing scattered near the shower and laundry basket.

A blush crossed Naruto’s face quickly. “I wasn’t thinking about that! I was just wondering, you seem to be walking much better now is all.” 

Tayuya smiled and opened the door to Naruto's bedroom. It was fairly clean, only a few pieces of clothing were scattered about and a mission pack lay scattered on top of a small table that sat in front of a small T.V. "Really? That's a shame because I was."

There was something in the way she spoke that made Naruto freeze like he was in trouble. His heart pounded faster and faster as Tayuya's sharp brown eyes gazed at him like a hungry predator. "I mean I was, but I mean aren't you? I mean.. that is..I.."

A finger to his lips silenced Naruto quickly. She smiled playfully up at him. “Relax Loverboy, I might be walking, but that’s not happening today, It still hurts to run and if we’re going to fuck then we’re going to do it right got that?” 

“Loud and clear!” Naruto replied happily, he really wanted to do that with her. Then suddenly, he was pressed against the wall Tayuya had her hands on either side of him and she looked up at him with a ravenous growing hunger. 

Tayuya licked her lips slowly as she gazed up at Naruto. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but there was a raw attraction to him. She wanted him to want her more than he wanted to breathe. "Where's my fucking flute."

“It’s right there, on your waist.” Naruto pointed to the ornate flute that dangled by Tayuya’s side. He shivered when Tayuya leaned forward onto her toes and moved towards his ears. Her breath made his spine tingle. 

"Not that flute, pay attention this time," Tayuya whispered lowly into Naruto's ear. She spoke each word slowly and her hand drifted down Naruto's side. "Where's, my, Fucking, Flute."

Naruto’s eyes went wide when Tayuya grabbed his penis. It throbbed to life at her touch, he groaned when she gave him a light pump through his pants. “I think you found it.” 

“So I did, now to make you sing.” Tayuya maneuvered Naruto to sit down on his bed and pulled a pillow off of it placing it purposefully onto the ground. Her shirt flew off as she kneeled down onto the pillow. Instantly Naruto’s eyes were fixated onto her breasts. 

“You’re beautiful.” Naruto mumbled, he couldn’t move his arms. Tayuya was in complete control. 

"Really? I haven't even started yet and you're already saying shit like that." Tayuya snorted at the compliment and grabbed at Naruto's pants and boxers. With a tug, she pulled them down. His erect member sprang to life in all its glory. She had felt it several times, but now, now she could actually see it in all of its glory. Tayuya liked it, she liked it a lot.

It had a heavy musky smell that caused Tayuya to squirm ever so slightly. She inched towards it slowly; her eyes locked with Naruto’s. She grabbed it and began to lick from the base upwards. He groaned and roiled with every motion as she felt his hot man meat up and down. It had a salty sweaty taste to it that lit a burning fire low in Tayuya’s stomach. 

"That's...oooooh.." Naruto's eyes fluttered in delight as he started to moan. His hands balled into fists as Tayuya slowly licked every inch of his penis. It was nothing like masturbating, the pleasure was unreal. His leg began to shake when her warm, wet tongue began to circle his tip.

“Fuuuuu” Naruto groaned out and slammed his head back onto the bed. He had no control over anything right now, his brain had gone on vacation and his penis had taken over. And then he felt it. Tayuya’s teeth grazed along the shaft as she took him in. His head lurched up and he looked into Tayuya’s eyes. 

If she didn’t have Naruto’s cock punching her tonsil Tayuya would have smiled at the look in Naruto’s eyes. They sparkled with pure unadulterated lust. And the noises that Naruto made at her every action were music to her ears. She kept her eyes locked onto his as she oh so slowly began to move back up. 

“Tatatayaaaaaah.” Naruto’s mind went blank and his eyes rolled to the side. Nobody had ever touched him like that before. It was so bizarre, so amazing. Goose bumps covered his arms and his hairs stood on end. 

Up and down, Tayuya repeated the motion over and over. Every action she took, she got a new reaction from Naruto, and the deeper his grunts, the more Tayuya was turned on. She couldn’t wait for her legs to be up to the task. She wanted to hear those grunts and moans as he pounded her up against a wall. 

It was important to have goals in life. 

Without warning, Naruto lurched forward once again locking eyes with Tayuya as she continued to suck his cock in a slow rhythmic motion. His hands went to her shoulders. "I'm.. I'm…. Gyuah."

Hot semen exploded into Tayuya's mouth as Naruto began to convulse gently. Each spasm poured more and more into her mouth. It was rather sweet and tangy, with a hint of salt mixed in. In an odd way, Tayuya actually liked the taste of it. It was far better than the hospital food. She sucked, trying to get every last drop of it.

For a moment, nNothing more entered her mouth. Tayuya removed Naruto’s penis from her mouth and swallowed his entire load. She then looked at him and smiled brightly. “Consider that a thank you for the ramen.” 

Naruto’s still hard dick twitched and a second torrent of jizz shot out of it, hitting Tayuya in the face. Another landed in her hair and a third crashed onto her chin and slid down her breasts. 

“Really Loverboy?” Tayuya chuckled and wiped a bit of Naruto’s sperm out of her eye. Her eyes were drawn to Naruto’s still hard cock. It stood tall and proud ready for more. A challenge for another time. 

Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his head. “Uhh.. sorry?”

Tayuya bounced up onto her feet allowing her assets to jiggle freely in front of Naruto. “Well whatever, now let’s cleaned up and go out to eat something.”

"Oh, you can use my shower first if you want, that way you get hot water." Naruto offered politely to Tayuya's breasts. His eyes kept flickering between her naked torso and her eyes. Against Tsunade he had no problem holding eye contact but there was just something about Tayuya that just did it for him.

Tayuya glared at Naruto and put her hands on her hips. “No way, you’re not getting off that easily Loverboy.” She pointed towards her sperm stained breasts. “You’re going to join me in the shower and make certain that I have the cleanest tits in Konoha.” 

Naruto did not need to be told twice. He lunged forward putting his shoulder into Tayuya's stomach and one hand on her butt before he picked her up causing her to squeal in delight. With his pants around his ankles, Naruto did an awkward shuffle towards his bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, there was a whirl of clothing, and the hot water blasted from the shower. For a moment the two just stood there, in appreciation of the other's naked forms. Tayuya was the first to act as she gently stroked Naruto's chest. Once again ,she found a long blonde hair and yanked it out suddenly.

“Oww!” Naruto shouted and took a step back away from Tayuya. He rubbed at the spot where the hair was and the pain quickly vanished. “Why do you do that?”

Tayuya smiled as she walked towards Naruto's shower. She put an extra sway in her hips just to give him a show. She put her hand into the stream of the water to test it. Nice and warm. With one leg into the shower, Tayuya turned to Naruto and beckoned him. "That's easy, because I want to."

"So you just do what you want?" Naruto questioned and followed Tayuya into the shower. His eyes were glued to her form, from her way her fiery hair danced on its own. To the way, her waist pinched in after the curve of hips. The slender strength of her arms and the nape of her neck. Everything about her was alluring.

“Yep, just like I want to take a shower with you.” The hot water felt good as it sputtered down around her. It had been so long since she had her hair properly washed. She shivered in delight when she felt Naruto press up against her and wrapped his arms low around her waist. One of her hands went up to his neck when moved towards her ear. His hot breath did wonders on her neck. 

“What about what I want?” Naruto wanted to kiss her, it was that simple. His hands drifted up Tayuya’s stomach as his head moved down to her neck where he kissed her gently. 

Tayuya squirmed at the kiss. She turned around in his arms and positioned his still hard member between her legs. She made certain to grind along its warmth just the smallest bit. Her arms wrapped around his neck and challenged him. "Why don't you do it then?"

Hot water sprayed between them. 

It was a soft subtle kiss that betrayed the passion behind it. It was the kiss of a good morning. A kiss of welcome home. It was a simple loving kiss on the surface. Behind it was Naruto's desperation, his desire for a family. Matched was Tayuya's need to not be alone again.

The separation was slow, as the kiss and for a second, time seemed to stop. 

"For somebody that's never had a girlfriend, you're a good kisser." Tayuya smiled as she turned back away from Naruto. She reached for Naruto's cheap shampoo and began to pour it on her head.

Naruto smiled and began to wash Tayuya’s long hair. Even when greasy from not being washed he adored the feeling of it. He wanted to feel it once it was cleaned and dried. “So what are we?” 

“You mean besides horny teenagers?” Tayuya asked between light moans it felt so good to have somebody else wash her hair. And now that she had a key to Naruto’s apartment there was a possibility of it happening a lot more. 

“No, I mean like are you my girlfriend?”

Tayuya rolled her eyes at that. “Are you really asking me to be your girlfriend again while we’re taking a shower fifteen minutes after I sucked your dick? Besides, you still got to take me out on a date don’t ya Loverboy?” 

"Whatever you say, Princess," Naruto whispered lowly into Tayuya's ear before he spun her around. Her hair was done as far as he could tell and it was time to start washing her breasts.

They stayed in the shower until the hot water ran out. 

Tayuya claimed one of Naruto's spare shirts as hers for a moment, it was one of his older ones and far too small for him now. Even on Tayuya, the shirt clung tightly to her frame, revealing just the subtlest amount of skin on her navel. She gave a long stretch and marveled at how silky her hair was. "You are so washing my hair from now on."

There was a knock on the window.

Naruto’s smile grew a little bit at that. That meant more naked shower time with Tayuya! He reached out and ran his hand through her hair. It was soft and smooth. “You look great in orange by the way.” 

With a snort, Tayuya slapped her hand on Naruto's chest. "Better than you Loverboy."

“Am I interrupting something?” Kakashi asked from outside of a window. His tone lacked the usual dull draw it normally had. This one seemed somber. 

“Yes!” Naruto shot instantly. 

Kakashi blinked unimpressed. "Oh well, Lady Hokage has summoned you."


	7. Chapter 7

“Jiraiya was killed in battle.” 

The Hokage’s room held the silence of a dead melody. It was a long pregnant silence that gnawed at the heart of all those present. 

“Huh?” Naruto questioned. He heard the small frog just fine. But he didn’t want to. How could Jiraiya be dead? It didn’t make any sense. It… it just wasn’t fair. “Wha-what’re you saying?”

Tayuya's eyes focused on the back of Naruto's head. Everything had been going so well. They were just being happy and stupid. Now everything was messed up. She could hear the anger as Naruto spoke, blaming Tsunade for Jiraiya's death.

Naruto’s hands balled into tight fists as that old frog and Tsunade attempted to explain themselves. Who the hell cared why? Jiraiya was dead! And it was their fault. Then it stopped. The anger was still there but the rage was gone; replaced with a deep loathing sadness. “Fuck this.” 

All those present fell into silence as Naruto turned away from the group and walked out the door. 

“Naruto.” Sakura began to step towards him to stop him from leaving. 

Naruto paused as he barely opened the door to leave. “If Pervy Sage had been Fifth Hokage, he wouldn’t have let Granny go on such a dangerous mission… Never!” 

Once again Tayuya found herself unable to speak as Naruto began to leave the room. She felt like she had to say something. Anything! But words completely failed her. All she could do was softly whisper his name. “Naruto.” 

It was enough to make him pause and nothing more. 

“Naruto!” Sakura shouted once more.

“Sakura, that’s enough leave him be,” Tsunade’s frown was hidden behind her hands. Her voice was firm because it had to be. She didn’t cry because she could not cry. For the first time in a long time, she was strong because she had to be. Not because she was. “That goes for you too, Tayuya.” 

“Fuck that!” Tayuya shouted and walked to the door as well. “How the fuck is being alone going to make him feel any fucking better? Just fuck.. Just fucking hold on, I’ll fucking bring him back or shit. Stupid Kermit the frog bullshit!”

Tayuya slammed the door much harder than Naruto did as she made her exit. 

Fukasaku gave a deep sigh and looked over at Tsunade; his face the same hard frown he had on since he had arrived. “Who was that girl?” 

“A relative of mine, and far more trouble than she’s worth it seems.” Tsunade glowered. She had never felt so old as she did right now. That empty pit in her heart that Dan had left when he died was back with Jiraiya’s death. And the spot that Naruto had filled was waning as well. 

“I do hope she is able to get through to that boy, it seems he deeply cares for and admired Jiraiya. It makes me hope more than anything that he is the child of prophecy.” Fukasaku hummed in thought for a long moment. 

XXXX

It was easy to find Naruto’s spiky blond head on the busy main street of Konoha. Even with his head held low and shoulders slumped, he stood out like a sore thumb. 

With a grunt, Tayuya entered a brief jog to catch up to Naruto. Her legs screamed at her ever so slightly but she pushed it aside. She looked at him, all of him. Everything showed grief and sadness. From his downcast eyes to the hands in his pockets. 

Once again, Tayuya had no idea what to do or to say. Something that frustrated her to no end. She didn’t like to see Naruto like this. It was so different from who he was. That almost painfully happy ball of sunshine that had bumbled into her life.

It was like he had grabbed her hand and told her to run with him. That they had gone on an adventure to fall in love. And now he had stopped. Leaving her standing in the middle of a swamp and no way out. 

With no thought Tayuya did the only thing she could think to do. She hugged Naruto from behind and pressed her face into his back. She knew it was in public and that people were looking at them. But Naruto was broken. And she didn’t know how to fix him. “Naruto.” 

Naruto stood for a moment hoping that Tayuya’s hug would stop him from feeling this. He wanted that knot in his stomach to vanish. He wanted the pounding headache to disappear. He wanted to feel like the whole world wasn’t spinning. But all her hug did was remind him of warmth. “I’m sorry, Tayuya.” 

In an instant, Naruto was out of her arms and jumping across the rooftops.

Tayuya’s arms closed in around herself, suddenly finding the air in Konoha to be rather chilly. Her breathing quickened as Naruto’s form shrunk in the distance. Her hands her shoulders and she stood there alone in the busy Konoha street feeling Isolated. 

At some point, her legs began to shuffle her forward. Her path through Konoha was direct and at some point, she found herself staring at Naruto's door once again.

His key felt heavy in her hand. Sure, she had taken it from him. But he didn't protest it. Hell, he had seemed happy when she had taken it. With a sigh, Tayuya put the key in and entered Naruto's apartment.

"Hey Loverboy, you here!?" Silence was her answer. The entry room was just as barren as it was before, but Naruto's jacket was thrown haphazardly onto the table.

The door to Naruto’s bedroom was closed, and refused to slide open for a brief moment. 

Naruto heard Tayuya enter his home, but he didn't bother to respond. When she entered his room, he turned to look her in the eyes before he buried his head back into his pillow once more.

He wished he could have smiled at her right then. 

Tayuya stared at the sack of sad on Naruto’s bed. She grit her teeth and balled her fists. Her back went straight and she really wanted to punch something right now. And then she let out a deep breath and relaxed. She sat down on the edge of Naruto’s bed and placed one hand on his back. 

“Alright Loverboy, get up, we still have a date to go on.” Tayuya smiled as she said it. She could feel Naruto tense when she spoke. Her mouth felt heavy however and her smile was small and quickly returned to a frown. 

Silence floated in the air like a thick mist blotting out the sun. 

In a flash of anger, Tayuya spun up from Naruto’s bed and pressed both hands into his back. She did it twice more using him as a springboard. “Come on Loverboy, get the fuck up!”

"I'm not hungry," Naruto mumbled into his pillow. That was a lie. He was hungry, but he didn't want to eat anything.

"Fucking bullshit!" Tayuya shouted. She hated seeing Naruto like this. "That Perverted Ogre was important to you, right? Do you think he'd want to see you like this, man the fuck up!"

Naruto sat up and stared at Tayuya with tear stained eyes. 

And then they fought. They shouted at each other a thousand words that meant nothing; a thousand words to hurt the other; a thousand times they shot back stronger, more violently more ferocious than before. It grew louder and louder like the roar of a coming storm as verbal blows struck like lightning. 

Their faces twisted into masks of anger while their bodies pointed and accused one another. All of Naruto's anger that he couldn't direct at Jiraiya was directed at Tayuya. And Tayuya refused to back down, matching Naruto's with her own.

Their faces grew red and voice hoarse from shouting. And still they fought, crossing the point of no return so many times it would break even brotherly bonds. Until finally ,Naruto ended it with two words that were just barely louder than a whisper.

“Just leave.” 

Those words hurt Tayuya more than any of the shouts or insults. And all that rage left her body like a popped balloon. The room spun and her legs felt wobbly. She refused to lose, though. "Fine."

With the last of her strength, she stomped out of Naruto's apartment and slammed his door. She made it two more steps before she slumped down against the wall. She wondered how long she had been crying for.

How the fuck did the day turn out like this? It had started out so well, she missed the warmth of Naruto as he held her gently in the shower. She didn’t mean half the things she said just now. She just didn’t know what to do. 

It was all so new to her. Having somebody she cared about. And having that person sad. She wanted to make him unsad but, she didn’t know how. It’s not like she could kick death in the nuts and bring Jiraiya back to life. 

She buried her head into her knees and hugged her legs tightly. She did nothing but breath quite jagged breaths. She couldn’t hear Naruto, maybe he left when she wasn’t paying attention. 

The sun began to set. 

Her flute shined brightly in the fading light. Slowly she traced the seals along its length. "If you can heal bodies. Maybe you can do something about this too?"

For Tayuya the effect was instantaneous. The second she put her lips to her flute it was like it was drawing out all of her negativity. Just like it always had. 

The melody that came out was a long one; composed of the darkest nights in the coldest winters. The tones held within them the memories of warmth. The warmth from the happier days of spring and summer was just a distant feeling.

It shifted slightly and the song began to rain, it was harsh and near freezing and every single tune caused a flurry of frostbite. There was no escaping the darkness, no escaping the cold. You could only endure. 

There was a slow building momentum that swept through the song, like the dull roar of the ocean. In the distance, light began to appear. The clouds began to break and the sun began to rise. Thin golden beams of warm yellow sunshine punctured the cold darkness.

Every small happy tune paused the winter and was a reminder that the sun will rise again and that winter is always followed by spring. Things may seem dark now but it will get better. 

For a long time, Naruto laid on his bed, just listening to Tayuya play her flute. A thousand hours of listening to her play and he wouldn’t be tired of it. It was the opposite; he wanted her to fill his life with her flute playing.

It spurred him into motion. The music itself didn't add to his sadness, it allowed him to feel more of it that was already there. Memories of Jiraiya that Naruto had forgotten about came to him as he explored the depths of his sadness. Small things, like the jacket Jiraiya had bought him, the time Jiraiya split a popsicle with him, grew to into trees ripe with happiness.

The smallest of smiles appeared on Naruto’s face as he began to prepare two cups of ramen. His smile grew more as Tayuya’s tune began to shift to the first crescendo of spring. With spring showers raining down with each note, new life began to bloom. A new chance to be happy. 

Tayuya jumped when Naruto opened his door abruptly. When he offered her a cup of noodles she took it quickly. It felt warm in her cold fingers and the sun had just a few minutes left before it vanished for the night. “Thank you.” 

“It’s hot,” Naruto shut his door and slid down to sit next to Tayuya. Their arms were touching. “Just like you.” 

Tayuya snorted and rested her head on Naruto's shoulder. She blew gingerly on her first bite of instant ramen and sighed in content. This was nice. "This so doesn't count as a date."

It was Naruto’s turn to laugh and he moved ever so slightly to kiss Tayuya on the head. He got her just on the top of her brow. “Even I’m not dumb enough to think that instant ramen is a good date.” 

“Oh, so you are learning,” Tayuya finally took her first bite of instant ramen and began to greedily slurp it up. It felt so good to have something in her stomach again. The only thing she had eaten today was Naruto’s dick milk, and that was not exactly sustenance. 

After the ramen was finished, the two just sat there watching the final bit of day fade away. 

“For the record, I’m sorry.” Naruto hugged Tayuya’s shoulder tighter. His free hand found hers, they were soft and smooth but rather cold compared to his own. “About what I said earlier.”

"Oh, so we're not pretending that didn't happen." Tayuya half yawned and snuggled closer into Naruto's chest. "But yeah, I'm sorry too, I'm good at pissing people off, not so good at other things."

Naruto chuckled and stood them both up. “Yeah well, your flute makes up for it.” 

“Oh so maybe I should just do nothing but play my flute then.” They slowly made their way to Naruto’s bed neither willing to separate. 

Naruto pulled Tayuya down onto his bed so that she was on top of him. “That might be for the best actually.” 

“But if all I did was play my flute I wouldn’t be able to do this.” She leaned in and gave Naruto a long lasting kiss. She melted into it allowing herself to be reduced to mush. She kicked off her sandals and pulled herself up on top of Naruto. 

They separated with a light smack, a smile, and a few giggles. "Okay, I suppose you can't play your flute all the time. After all, there's a kissing tax for this bed."

Tayuya gave a small laugh at that and sat up on Naruto's stomach staring down at him with a possessive look in her eye. "Oh, and how many more kisses until I'm all paid up?"

“Oh a few more like that one will do,” Naruto replied as he ran his hands up and down Tayuya’s sides. Tayuya’s hair acted as a curtain cutting them off from the outside world. 

One. 

Two.

Three. 

“There you feel better now?” Tayuya asked wiping a bit of spit off of her mouth. She rolled off of Naruto and laid down beside him. 

"A bit yeah," His chest still hurt from time to time but he felt like himself again. With a bit of twisting, he brought his blankets on top him and Tayuya. "I just wanted him to watch me become Hokage, ya know?"

Tayuya snaked her arms around Naruto and pressed her face into Naruto's warm broad back. "He told me to take care of you, so I'll keep an eye on you and watch you become Hokage for him okay?"

“Thank you, Tayuya.” 

"Goodnight Loverboy"

XXXX

"Man, why am I the one to do this?" Shikamaru walked up to Naruto's door before he gave a long sigh. Why was he the one to try and get Naruto to be undepressed? He had just barely gotten over Asuma's death but that wasn't going to help a guy like Naruto. "It's so troublesome."

A lazy half knock on Naruto’s door and there was immediate shuffling from inside. And then there was silence. 

Shikamaru shifted on his feet in annoyance and knocked again louder this time. This time there was a grunt and a few whispers that were lost in the walls. “Oi oi, Naruto open up I know you’re in there!” 

More silence followed by... a moan? 

"Hey, Naruto open up!" Shikamaru banged on the door loudly. "Don't make me come in there!"

“Would you shut the fuck up!” A voice that was not Naruto by any means echoed pierced through the wall. There was stomping and banging that slowly made it’s way to the door. The locked turned and the door was thrown open. Tayuya stood there completely topless looking rather pissed. “The fuck do you want?”

Shikamaru’s eyes immediately inspected Tayuya’s breasts before snapping up to register the pissed off redhead that stood before him. “What are you doing in Naruto’s home?”

“I’m trying to suck his dick!” Tayuya shouted loudly and folded her arms in annoyance. “And unless you want to come watch so you can take notes with your pencil dick I suggest you come back in like an hour.” 

A blush formed on Shikamaru's face as he attempted to process the information. Once he did, however, he quickly decided that Naruto was a troublesome idiot. It only seemed natural that Naruto would end up with somebody louder than he was. "Look... just have Naruto go to the deciphering team to help figure out Jiraiya's message after you uhh…"

"Got it bye!" Tayuya shouted loudly and slammed the door in Shikamaru's face. With a sway in her hips, she walked back to see Naruto stuffing his now softened member into his underwear. "Woah now Loverboy, we're not finished yet."

Naruto frowned and stopped what he was doing. He honestly didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. If he could, he would have spent the whole day in bed with her. Sadly, it was her own encouragement that was spurring him into action. “You heard Shikamaru, they need me to try and figure out Pervy-sage's message.” 

Tayuya frowned and flopped down onto Naruto’s slightly lumpy mattress. It wasn’t as comfy as the hospital ones, maybe they should steal one of those. Pinkie wouldn’t mind if she spun it that she was helping prevent Naruto’s future back problems or something. “How hard can it be to figure out something that the Old Pervert wrote? It probably has something to do with his books or something.” 

“You haven’t read his books have you?” 

"They didn't exactly allow literature in prison," It might not have sucked as bad if they did. A good book every so often would have made her day. Hell, a porny romance novel would have done absolute wonders.

With exactly one sock on Naruto walked through his messy room and went to the T.V. stand. After a moment of rummaging through the small drawer, he brought out a sealed set of three books. He walked over to his bed and placed the stack on Tayuya's bare stomach, mostly to watch her squirm at the cold plastic. "Well, I have the complete set if you're interested."

Tayuya looked at the set for a moment before she gave Naruto a large smug smile that said she was full of shit. It dared Naruto to challenge her. “Trying to turn me into a pervert? I’ll have you know, I’m a proper lady” 

Naruto didn’t believe that for a second. He stared at Tayuya’s smile with a neutral unimpressed look. “I woke up to your ass in my face this morning while you were sucking on my dick.” 

“True, you need to learn to give oral.” Tayuya picked up the books and began to unseal the books. Time to see what’s so great about these things. Hell, even Kabuto had a copy of the orange book and he reproduced with a test tube. 

“Oral?” 

Tayuya’s smile vanished and she looked at Naruto like he had grown a second head. “How the fuck do you have two perverts and not know what oral is?” 

Naruto crossed his arms and huffed. It wasn't his fault his sensei were both perverts, and it wasn't like those books were anything special — he thought they were boring as hell. Still, it somehow made him happy that Tayuya wanted to read them. "It'd be easier to learn it if you told me what it was."

“Licking my pussy.” 

Naruto blinked in confusion. “And that.. would feel good?” 

"It probably feels about as it does when I give you blowjob." Tayuya shrugged and stared up at Naruto's ceiling. There was some mold or something in one of the corners, probably nothing too bad.

“Oh.”

Tayuya laid on Naruto's bed and began to read the first Icha Icha book while he got dressed. The start of it was interesting enough, a woman grieving over her now dead fiance. Eventually, the words just blurred away and a thought occurred to her. "Hey, can I live here?"

Naruto put on his jacket is and shrugged. “Well you’re not allowed to leave Konoha anyways, I’m sure granny could find a place for you.” 

"You idiot," Tayuya growled and sat up closing the book with a snap. His density was actually quite surprising and she wasn't quite sure if he was just teasing her. She felt her face heat up for the first time and suddenly felt incredibly shy. She wasn't asking much. Just that she see him nearly every day. "I meant to live here with you. As in me and you sleeping in this bed every night and all the other stuff."

Naruto's eyes went wide and he stared off into the distance unable to quite focus on anything. Tayuya had just asked if she could live with him. His mouth failed him as he wanted to shout yes a thousand times yes. His head failed him as he wanted to nod it furiously.

Instead, he fell towards her pushing her back down onto his, onto their bed and began to kiss her gently. He watched as her eyes closed slowly and her arms wrapped around his neck. Her legs wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer to her.

“Should I take that as a yes?” Tayuya smiled at Naruto when they separated for a moment. She grabbed Naruto by his ears and rubbed his cheek lightly with her thumbs. It was so odd, the feeling that she actually wanted to be here. This was her choice. 

Naruto just nodded happily and nuzzled into Tayuya's hands. He wasn't alone. Somebody was choosing to live with him, rescue him. It also helped that it was the most amazing woman he'd ever met. "Yeah, we can talk about your rent later."

Tayuya rolled her eyes with a snort. “Whatever you say Loverboy, now go point out something obvious so that the egg heads can figure out the code.” 

“When I get back we can go on that date!” 

XXXX

“Are you fucking kidding me?” 

There was only one real plus to making Tayuya mad, that she was kind of cute in a scary please-don’t-hurt-me kind of way. It wasn’t intentional on Naruto’s part, but he did feel rather guilty about it. 

Naruto chuckled softly as they walked towards the gate of Konoha. Tayuya had on another one of his old shirts and a pair of shorts she got from somewhere. He had to admire her thriftiness. Naruto had on his standard attire in addition to a mission pack. Which is why Tayuya was mad at him. “Look, I promise as soon as I get back, I’ll give you the best date ever! But this is important training from the toad sage!” 

Tayuya growled at Naruto and continued to glare a hole into his skull. Seriously what was with literally everything trying to prevent them from dating? It wasn't even that big of a deal, she was mostly upset that the day she moves in he decides to haul ass and go on a fucking training trip. "I'm not going to hold my breath, every time we plan to go out on a date, something shows up and ruins it. Just you watch, you're going to come back and Konoha's going to be under attack or some shit."

“Hey, don’t jinx it!” Naruto laughed lightly as he noticed Sakura and Tsunade waiting at the gate with Fukasaku. 

Tayuya sighed allowing herself to relax, her anger vanishing. Naruto was going to be gone again soon. At least she had someplace to stay other than that hospital room. She examined Naruto's hand; the way it just flopped lazily at his side made her angry. With a quick step towards him, Tayuya took Naruto's hand in hers. "You're just lucky I'm desperate."

"I thought it was because I'm cute." Naruto smiled down at his short redhead. After a quick shuffle, he entwined their fingers, it was something he wanted to do since he saw couples do it when he was little.

“Please, I’d put a bag on your head if I could.” 

“I’ll do it if you put duct tape on your mouth.” 

“Oooh Kinky, maybe I should tie you to the bed and drip hot wax on your chest as I ride you.”

Naruto opened his mouth to say something. But he didn’t have anything that he could say to that. After a moment, he sighed. “You win.”

Tayuya smiled proudly. “Damn straight I do, don’t you forget it.” 

Sakura stared at the two slack-jawed as they approached. She had accepted that Tayuya and Naruto were going to become a couple. It seemed so inevitable. But that did not mean she didn't have the right to be disgusted at the way those two flirted. "You two make me want to barf."

Tsunade rolled her eyes while patting Sakura on the back. “You sure you’re not just jealous you don’t have somebody like that?” 

“Master!” Sakura’s shoulders slumped at the painful truth. It wasn’t that she wanted any old guy to flirt with her like that either. 

“Don’t worry Sakura I’ll get super strong with this training and then bring Sasuke back no problem!” Naruto beat his chest once with a wide smile on his face. 

Fukasaku croaked loudly to get their attention. "Alright Naruto-boy, say your goodbyes. We're wasting valuable time here."

“Alright Loverboy, go do this stupid training thing, by the time you get back my legs will be fully healed!” Tayuya let Naruto’s fingers slip through hers as they separated. She couldn’t help but smile as Naruto began to blush. He knew full well what Tayuya wanted to do as soon as her legs were fully healed. 

"You got it, Princess!" Naruto shouted proudly. He gave Tsunade and Sakura a small wave and a bow. "Granny, Sakura, I'll see you two later, and in now time I'll be taking that hat from you!"

A moment later Naruto and the frog elder vanished in a poof of smoke. 

Tayuya frowned for a moment. She was alone again. She was alone in a large city filled with people. But for once, she was actually looking forward to having somebody come back to her. And she had something to achieve. “Alright, Pinkie, Jugkage, I want to be Shinobi ready by the time Naruto gets back!”


End file.
